Jalen Bridges got over jitters quickly; No. 9 West Virginia travels to Oklahoma State for a crucial match-up

MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — The jitters were only natural, and Jalen Bridges admits for a few seconds Saturday against Oklahoma, the WVU freshman forward said his insides were feeling them.

“Leading up to the game, I kind of had nerves,” the Fairmont native said. “I was kind of shaky. I was over thinking it. As soon as we arrived at the gym, my teammates came together and told me, “Play your game and be aggressive. There’s nothing to fear. You’re meant to be here.’ ”

In his first collegiate start, Bridges proved his teammates right.

When no one else on WVU’s roster made plays in the first half of the Sooners’ 75-71 victory, Bridges made plenty.

He made 3 of 4 from 3-point range, grabbed three rebounds, drew three fouls and came up with a steal.

For a young man dealing with some nerves, the effort wasn’t bad at all.

“I really got my jitters out in probably the first 30 seconds,” Bridges said.

From there, it was just basketball, and Bridges knew plenty about that.

He played in four Class AA state championship games at Fairmont Senior and had been ranked as a 4-star recruit coming out of high school. The difference now? Bridges’ spot in the WVU lineup was awarded only after Oscar Tshiebwe decided to leave town, which left a huge 6-foot-9, 260-pound hole in the Mountaineers starting five.

“We didn’t really have to get J.B. ready,” WVU guard Taz Sherman said. “It was more about when he was going to start being him. In practice, he’s the same guy. he makes shot and rebounds and plays hard. That’s who J.B. is and now it’s starting to come into play since there’s more opportunity.

“I felt like this was a coming out party for him. This is the one game that he’s going to look back at and say, ‘I need to play like this all the time.’ ”

Bridges finished with 19 points and was 5 of 6 from 3-point range.

“I thought J.B. played well,” WVU head coach Bob Huggins said. “I had all the confidence in the world in J.B. and I said that. We’ll be fine, because J.B. rebounded the ball extremely well in practice at the end of last year.”

The Mountaineers (8-3, 1-2 Big 12) will head about 80 miles north to play Oklahoma State at 9 p.m. Monday.

The Cowboys (7-2, 1-2) are coming off an 82-77 overtime victory against No. 13 Texas Tech on Saturday that saw four of Oklahoma State’s starters score in double figures and the Cowboys shot 42.1% from 3-point range and recorded 12 steals.

Oklahoma State is led by freshman sensation Cade Cunningham, a projected high lottery pick in the 2021 NBA Draft who is second in the Big 12 in scoring at 18.4 points per game.

The Cowboys’ two Big 12 losses — against TCU and Texas — came by a combined four points.

A third conference loss by either school this early in conference play would create a huge hole to try and dig out of.

“I’m a little more worried about us than I am about them right now,” Huggins said. “We’re not in a good place in terms of our intensity level. I have said from the very beginning that we need to pass the ball more. In the first half, we were not passing the ball.

“Everybody wants to grab it and dribble it. It blows my mind that you catch the ball when you’re open and you don’t shoot it. They take one dribble toward the defense, so they can hop back and shoot a fade away. It makes no sense to me. We’re going to fix that.”

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