Oklahoma Basketball: Sooners Mount Major Comeback to Lasso Longhorns

For a long while in the round one of the hoops Red River Showdown, it appeared Oklahoma basketball was going to allow one bad loss to turn into a second straight defeat, but fortunately for Sooner fans, All-American Buddy Hield had other ideas.

Texas did everything it needed to do to steal a huge win at Oklahoma, but the Longhorns didn’t have the probable National Player of the Year on their side. Hield scored the final 12 Oklahoma points, including a game-winning three-point shot with two seconds remaining in the game to give No. 3-ranked OU a 63-60 win over its archrival from south of the Red River.

In the follow-up from Oklahoma’s  disappointing performance at Kansas State on Saturday, we examined what went wrong. Here is an assessment of what went right in the Sooners dramatic turnaround to seize victory from the jaws of defeat against the hated Longhorns:

• The Big 12’s leading scorer, Buddy Hield, scored 21 of his 27 game-high points in the second half, including the game-winning three-point basket with two seconds remaining in regulation.
• The Sooners outscored Texas 9-0 in fast-break points, and also outscored the Longhorns in bench points, 8-7.
• Texas led 31-22 at the half, but Oklahoma won the second half 41-29 largely behind the scoring of Hield.
• Both teams shot 40 percent from the field, but Oklahoma outscored Texas 14-6 at the free-throw line. The Sooners were 14 of 18 from the charity stripe, and Hield, a 90-percent free-throw shooter on the season, was responsible for 11 of 10.
• Oklahoma’s 22 first-half points, on 28-percent shooting, was a season low. The Sooners opened the second half, however, on a 7-1 run to narrow the Longhorn halftime advantage to 32-29. A three-ball by Isaiah Cousins at the 12:54 mark knotted the score at 39-all. The game remained close from that point on.
• Isaiah Cousins contributed 17 points for the Sooners. It is the sixth consecutive game in which Cousins has scored in double digits. He is averaging 16 points in those six games.
• Ryan Spangler, who on Saturday re-tweaked a knee he injured at the beginning of Big 12 competition, played 38 minutes against Texas, scoring eight points on 4 of 5 from the field and grabbing a team-high 10 rebounds.
• The Sooners have won 12 straight games at home this season without a defeat and have won 18 consecutive games at home over the past two seasons.