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MORGANTOWN -- Junior Esa Ahmad's fourth start of the season didn't last very long for the Cleveland native as a pair of personal fouls in the first three minutes of No. 19 WVU's home contest against Oklahoma State, sent the smooth-shooting forward to the bench for the final 17 minutes of the first half.
"I knew I was going to sit out the rest of the first half," Ahmad said following WVU's 88-85 loss to the Cowboys. "I just wanted to come out and play as hard as I could in the second half."
Ahmad, who missed the teams' first meeting while serving a NCAA-mandated suspension, got the Mountaineers off to a good start with a sweet jumper to knot the game at 2-2 just 40 seconds in.
However, 20 seconds later he picked up his first personal and then went to the bench 80 seconds later when he was whistled for an offensive foul.
That would not be the case over the final 20 minutes.
By the time for the first television timeout came around (15:58) Ahmad had added a pair of assists, a steal and four made free throws to his game totals.
The junior finished with 16 points, four assists and two rebounds in 20 minutes of action, but it was not enough as OSU won for the fourth time in six trips to the Coliseum on a 3-pointer by Lindy Waters with 14 seconds remaining and a game-clinching dunk by Jeffrey Carroll just before the final buzzer.
"The Big 12 is a competitive conference," Ahmad said. "The team that wins it may have as many as five losses, so we've got to get ready for the next game."
Which will occur at 9 on Monday night when Texas Christian comes to town for 'Big Monday' showdown.
"You've got to give them (OSU) credit," WVU coach Bob Huggins said. "They hit shots. They hit some hard shots. And, we didn't.
"We call a timeout there at the end and the play was to go into Sags (Sagaba Konate), but it doesn't. I told them over the final four minutes that I wanted the ball to go into Sags and he never touched it.
"I'm not sure what Beetle (James Bolden) saw. You'd have to ask him. But, the play was to get the ball to JC (Jevon Carter) at the top of the key and play some high-low with Sags. If JC wasn't open the ball was to go to the next player who rotated to that spot."
That didn't happen as Bolden's 3-pointer with seven seconds on the clock landed into the hands of Kendall Smith, who threw the ball to Carroll for the game-ending dunk.
Carter led all scorers with 33 points while sophomore Lamont West joined Ahmad (16) in double figures with 10.
That was not be enough, however, as OSU put five players in double figures led by Smith and Cameron McGriff, who had 20 each. Carroll (14), Mitchell Solomon (10) and Waters (10) followed.
Konate finished with eight points, seven rebounds and a pair of blocked shots in 20 minutes of action.
"I'm still at a loss to why you can put your hands all over the cutter and nothing is called, but if you put a hand on them outside the paint, it's a foul," Huggins said.
Notes
∫ Cameron's Logan Routt saw 15 minutes of action, hauling down two rebounds and going 0-for-1 from the field before fouling out at the 3:47 mark of the second half.
∫ OSU sophomore Thomas Dziagwa, the son of former Parkerburg Catholic player and coach Don Dziagwa, saw six minutes of action for the Cowboys, hauling down two rebounds, coming up with a pair of steals and dishing out one assist.