Oklahoma (15-8, 5-5 Big 12) significantly improved its hopes for an at-large NCAA bid Saturday with an impressive 69-59 win over then-No. 13 West Virginia (18-5, 6-4) in Norman.

The NCAA Selection Committee attaches value to wins over highly ranked opponents.

“Anytime you beat a ranked team, that’s great from a resume standpoint,” OU coach Lon Kruger said. “Our most important thing, as these guys have done (the) last couple (or) three weeks, is just keep getting better.”

OU’s Kristina Doolittle was red hot, pacing the Sooners with 27 points. His ball distribution was crucial in OU defeating West Virginia’s full-court defensive pressure.

The Mountaineers managed to get OU to turn the ball over 19 times but many of them were late in the game when the Sooners had a double-digit lead.

West Virginia had an early lead based on a rebounding edge. Eleven of WVU’s first 16 points were from offensive rebounds. But Mountaineer big man Oscar Tshiefwe got in foul trouble in the first half and had to go to the bench. That led to a streak in which OU outscored WVU 17-2.

OU’s Brady Manek had 11 points and eight rebounds for Oklahoma, which ended up with a 42-41 rebounding advantage over West Virginia.

WVU took 27 more shots than the Sooners (76 to 49) but missed 52 of them – many of those close to the basket.

“Twenty-two misses within two feet of the basket … what other explanation is there?” West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said after the game. “We took 76 shots. One of our guards took three shots, two of them didn’t hit anything and one of them hit the backboard before it hit the rim. How do you explain that?”

OU lead 31-24 at the half.

The Sooners are in a rough part of their schedule. They hosted Iowa State Wednesday night and they will face No. 3 Kansas in Lawrence, No. 1 Baylor in Norman and Oklahoma State in Stillwater. Texas Tech then comes to Norman and there is a rematch with the Mountaineers in West Virginia.

Huggins complained about the extensive travel for West Virginia, which is one the outskirt of Big 12’s footprint.

“We won the other day and everyone said, ‘Why are you so down?’ I saw this coming. You do this 40-some years and you kind of figure it out,” Huggins said. “I tried to talk to them about it and they’re not the same guys. That’s attitude. I’m not in charge of their attitude and their teammates are not in charge of their attitude – they’re in charge of their own attitude.”