Umoja Gibson held his nephew, Ethan Chargois stood with his family and Marvin Johnson’s extended family and friends, seemingly 50-strong, spread out across the hardwood for a group picture.
But Jordan Goldwire’s family, despite the veteran point guard going on to have the best game of the Sooners’ senior quartet, was not in attendance for Oklahoma’s senior night on Tuesday. Goldwire previously received senior night honors at the conclusion of his four years at Duke, though.
“Obviously, I would have liked for them to be here,” Goldwire said. “But for me, I didn't really treat it like it was kind of my senior night even though I've been here for a year and it's my last year … just, the current timing didn’t work out.”
Goldwire, an offseason transfer from Durham, scored 16 points with five rebounds, four assists and three steals on Tuesday. He put the finishing touches on the season sweep of West Virginia (14-16, 3-14) with a 3-pointer to seal the Sooners’ win with 28 seconds to play.
While Goldwire sank the dagger, senior forward Tanner Groves raised his hands in celebration of the Norcross, Georgia, native as he backpedaled across the OU logo. Not quite six minutes prior, Groves hammered home a dunk over the head of WVU forward Pauly Paulicap and drew a foul. After a West Virginia timeout, he completed the and-one.
Following Groves’ dunk, he and Goldwire took full control of the game for the Sooners (16-14, 6-11 Big 12). Groves added eight points in the final six minutes to push him to his second-straight double-double and Goldwire contributed seven points during the same time frame, propelling OU to a 72-59 senior night victory.
“We were able to grit it out there,” said Groves, who finished with a 17-point and 10-assist double-double. “We were able to get a couple stops, Jordan got downhill a couple of times, I hit a couple of threes and … the momentum carried us from there. It was all good, and (I’m) happy we were able to send the seniors out with the last home win.”
Alongside Goldwire, Gibson — who hasn’t made clear whether he will take his fifth year of eligibility — scored eight points with three steals, Chargois hit a fastbreak corner 3-pointer to cap off a 13-0 OU first half run and Johnson added a pair of rebounds in the home finale.
Meanwhile, fellow seniors Elijah Harkless and Groves didn’t participate in the senior night ceremonies. Harkless has already announced his intentions to play a final season of college basketball after suffering a season-ending knee injury during OU’s 80-78 overtime loss to Texas on Feb. 15. Moser’s recruiting pitch to Groves, an Eastern Washington transfer, prominently featured him taking his extra year of eligibility due to COVID-19.
The rest of the Sooners stepped up alongside Groves and Goldwire to help deliver a final victory in Norman for the seniors. Junior forwards Jalen Hill and Jacob Groves scored 10 and nine points, respectively, freshman guard Bijan Cortes had three assists and C.J. Noland added five points off the bench.
Noland had missed OU’s 66-62 Bedlam win on Saturday, Feb. 26 due to a minor knee injury suffered in practice beforehand, but didn’t miss a step in his return, providing and offensive punch to snap a Sooners first half cold skid. Oklahoma scored six points in the first six minutes before a Noland 3-pointer and layup in a 60-second span helped spark OU’s first half performance.
Cortes’ biggest contribution was his ability to give Goldwire a much-needed break. Moser has mentioned exhaustion as an issue for Goldwire, who played over 35 minutes in four of the Sooners’ previous five contests entering the matchup. Against the Mountaineers, he only played 30, due to Cortes’ efforts off the bench.
Goldwire, who averaged 28.7 minutes per game at his apex as a Blue Devil and only played over 35 minutes five times in the 2020-21 season, pushed past that mark to the 30.2 minutes per game he has averaged at Oklahoma. He has put everything on the line in his final collegiate run, and his OU minutes averages are even held down by smaller performances in blowout non-conference victories.
“I liked (Goldwire) at 29, 30 minutes,” Moser said. “It gives him a break to stay fresh. I thought he was fresher at the end of the game than he was in other games when I have to play him 35 or 36. … That’s a credit to Bijan.”
As the senior quartet approaches the end of their careers, they face yet another must-win game for NCAA Tournament hopes when OU takes on Kansas State at 3 p.m. on Saturday, March 5 in Manhattan.
Additionally, the Sooners now control whether they will be in the Big 12 tournament play-in game after Tuesday’s victory.
A Saturday win would allow Oklahoma to avoid a potential trap game in a rematch with West Virginia, which has secured the No. 9 conference seed. However, it would put OU in line for a contest with stalwarts Kansas, Texas Tech or Baylor — whichever of the three earns the No. 2 conference seed.
“We get a little momentum, anything can happen,” Moser said. “I keep saying this, we needed these (last two wins), so it felt good to get a little separation and confidence.”
