TOUGH LOSS — WVU forward Chance Moore drives to the basket against Oklahoma State on Tuesday night. - WVU Athletic Communications

MORGANTOWN — That banging noise heard inside Gallagher-Iba Arena on Tuesday night was either WVU men’s basketball coach Ross Hodge slamming his hand down on the scorer’s table or Oklahoma State hammering the final nail into the Mountaineers’ coffin for the 2025-26 season.

It just may have been both, as the Mountaineers lost a track meet early and then wiped out a 14-point deficit in the second half only to get outplayed in overtime.

Oklahoma State improved to 17-1 on the season when it scores at least 81 points and the Mountaineers lost its fourth consecutive game in Stillwater, Okla. following the Cowboys’ 91-84 overtime victory.

Through all of the ins and outs that came with this game, the five-minute overtime period – the game was tied at 77 after regulation – saw Oklahoma State making the right plays, while West Virginia came up short on what amounted to five-footers and missed lay-ups.

West Virginia didn’t score in the extra period until 94 seconds remained. By then, it was well too late.

“Really felt good and felt fortunate to be in overtime,” Hodge said on his radio postgame show. “They executed down the stretch better than we did. They got the ball kind of where they wanted it and they were able to convert it.

“We got the ball to some places where we wanted to get it to in overtime and didn’t convert them.”

As for the season, it would be hard to fathom how the NCAA selection committee can now seriously consider the Mountaineers, who return to Morgantown to host 19th-ranked BYU on Saturday.

Even an upset of the Cougars wouldn’t be enough to overlook WVU having lost five of its last seven with three of those defeats coming at the hands of teams at the bottom of the Big 12 standings.

The majority of the game – outside the early portions of the second half – was played at Oklahoma State’s pace, which is to basically turn a basketball court into a NASCAR track, minus all the left turns.

The Cowboys (17-11, 5-10 Big 12) scored at will on their way to a 46-33 halftime lead – the most points WVU (16-12, 7-8) has allowed in a first half all season.

“The first half was probably as poor a half defensively as we’ve played, if you look at the numbers,” Hodge said. “They’re a good offensive team. They play with a lot of pace and play with a lot of confidence. We allowed them to establish too much of a rhythm. It was just too easy.”

It was hard not to look at those early numbers, because poor first halves have plagued the Mountaineers for most of the season. They trailed again at the break for a seventh consecutive game and for the 12th time out of 15 Big 12 games played thus far.

WVU’s defense was nonexistent early. Oklahoma State big man Parsa Fallah dominated. His backup, Andrija Vukovic, well, he dominated, too. They combined for 17 points and only missed two shots between them in the first half.

WVU’s defense did show up in the early moments of the second half, holding the Cowboys to just nine points over the first 10 minutes.

“The second half, we did a much better job of making it hard on them,” Hodge said.

And then it became bombs-away for both teams. WVU guard Honor Huff dropped in a couple from well beyond 25 feet away. He finished with six 3-pointers and 20 points, while playing all 45 minutes of the game.

Oklahoma State guard Kanye Clary countered with a step-back 3-pointer while buried deep in the corner. The 6-foot-10 Fallah added one too. Both teams combined for 22 3-pointers in all. Of West Virginia’s first 31 shots taken in the game, 21 of them came from behind the arc.

“I really didn’t have any major issues with that,” Hodge said. “They were pretty open.”

WVU grabbed its first lead of the second half when Treysen Eaglestaff scored in transition with 4:22 left in regulation for a 72-71 lead. The Mountaineers then came back from a 77-72 deficit over the final three minutes to send the game into overtime, with Chance Moore’s drive to the bucket tying the game with 19 seconds left.

Moore came off the bench and finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds.

Eaglestaff added 18 points, but he and Huff combined for just two points over the final nine minutes of the game, including the overtime.

Fallah finished with 18 points and eight rebounds for Oklahoma State, which saw its five-game losing skid come to an end. Fallah hurt his left knee on his final dunk of the game with 5.5 seconds remaining. Replays showed his knee buckled on his landing. Clary added 17 points for the Cowboys, who finished with six players scoring in double figures.