Major college basketball roundup: Knapper sparks WVU over Oklahoma
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Brandon Knapper came off the bench to score a career-high 25 points to lead West Virginia over Oklahoma 79-71 on Saturday.
“I think we’ve all been waiting on it,” WVU coach Bob Huggins said. “His problem has been ball security. He’s thrown the ball everywhere. He did a good job today under some tough circumstances.”
Derek Culver scored 13 points and pulled 14 rebounds in his first start for the Mountaineers (10-12, 2-7 Big 12 Conference). Wesley Harris added 13 points as well. Knapper had six of the eight free throws for the Mountaineers in the final 33 seconds. Culver had the other two as he and Knapper combined for West Virginia’s final 16 points for its second win in 10 games in 2019.
Walk-on Trey Doomes made two free throws to cap an 8-0 run as West Virginia capped a back-and-forth first half with a 33-26 lead.
The Mountaineers kept a two-possession cushion for most of the second half, until a flurry of West Virginia fouls led to repeated trips to the line for the Sooners to close the gap.
Oklahoma (15-7, 3-6) went more than 6½ minutes without scoring from the field but hit 13 free throws to cut the Mountaineer lead down to as little as one with six minutes to play.
Knapper had 10 points and Culver 6 in the last 3½ minutes.
Ahmad had added 12 points and 13 rebounds for the Mountaineers, his first double-double of the season.
Dayton 68, Duquesne 64: Obi Toppin scored a career-high 26 points, Jalen Crutcher added 16 and Dayton turned back Duquesne 68-64 in a showdown for third place in the Atlantic 10 Conference.
Crutcher hit three 3-pointers and combined with Toppin to go 10 of 16 from the field as the Flyers (15-7, 7-2) erased an 11-point deficit with less than 15 minutes to play. After missing its first nine treys, Dayton hit 5 of 7.
There we six ties in the last 10 minutes. Toppin flushed a dunk on an inbounds play to put Dayton up 64-62 with 2:28 to play. Marcus Weathers tied it with a layup at the 2-minute mark and then Crutcher hit a short pullup jumper from just off the block with 1:39 remaining.
Crutcher’s free throw made it a three-point game and in the closing seconds Duquesne missed a 3, grabbed an offensive rebound and threw the ball away. Jordan Davis got the steal and free throw with a second left.
Eric Williams Jr. had 20 points for Duquesne (15-7, 6-3) and Sincere Carey added 15 with six assists, five rebounds and three steals.