Oklahoma Basketball: A Dozen Things to Like About OU’s 12th Win

For quite a while on Saturday, it appeared it the 11-game winning streak of Oklahoma basketball was closer to reaching an end that at any other point in the season.

That is, until it wasn’t. Oklahoma trailed for three-quarters of this game before coming alive at the end to pull out an 87-83 victory over Iowa State and remain unbeaten this season.

Everyone knew that 11th-ranked Iowa State was going to pose perhaps the biggest challenge the third-ranked Sooners had faced all season, and the Cyclones (10-1 coming into their Big 12 season opener) did not did not disappoint in that regard.

The Sooners led for a little over nine minutes the entire game. Iowa State went up 9-8 at the 14:59 mark in the first half and did not relinquish the lead for the next 29 minutes of the game. A three-point shot by OU’s Isaiah Cousins with 5:29 left in the game gave the Sooners their first lead since the early moments of the game.

Oklahoma fell behind one more time, at 77-76, but a second straight three-pointer by Cousins put the Sooners in the lead for good at the 4:45 mark and they held on to record victory number 12 on the year and preserve their unbeaten record to begin the 2015-16 season.

It was a great come-from-behind win over a great team, and set up the Monday night showdown everyone had been hoping for when the Sooners travel to Kansas for a battle of what is anticipated to be the country’s as well as the Big 12’s top-two teams.

“Anytime you beat a team like Iowa State, it’s a good win,” said Sooner head coach Lon Kruger in his postgame comments. “It seemed like we were fighting uphill for much of it.

“We came back and moved it a little better in the second half, but still couldn’t quite get over the hump. When we did, the crowd was in there, and they were great all night. That made a big difference down the stretch.”

The Sooner starters, who are now in their third and fourth seasons playing together, stepped up at the right times. That’s what experience and the confidence of playing together for so long does for great teams like this Oklahoma squad. And it came home to roost at Lloyd Noble Center when it absolutely needed to on Saturday night.

Despite the close call, there is plenty to like about OU’s exciting home win over a team expected to be a top contender in the Big 12 this season. We count a dozen of them:

• The win was number 12 on the season without a loss, leaving the Sooners as one of only three teams in NCAA Division I without a loss in 2015-16.
• Five Sooners scored in double figures for the third time this season. led by Buddy Hield with 22 points. At least three Oklahoma players have reached double digits in scoring in 11 of OU’s 12 games this season.
• Oklahoma’s 87 points in the 87-83 win over Iowa State was right on their season scoring average, which is the sixth best in the nation.
• The Sooners have reached the 80-point level in six successive games and in 10 of their 12 games this season.
• Ryan Spangler kept the Sooners in the game early on, scoring six of Oklahoma’s first eight points. He ended up with 22 points in the game. This is the second time this season that the senior from Oklahoma has scored 22 points, which is an excellent example of the Sooners’ balanced scoring on offense to complement National Player of the Year candidate Buddy Hield.
• Oklahoma outrebounded Iowa State 40-39 and had a five-rebound advantage on the offensive glass (13 to 8). The Sooners, who lead the Big 12 in the rebounding category, averaging 43.5 boards per game, have only been outrebounded one time all season (by Wisconsin, 46-44, in an 65-48 Oklahoma win).
• Isaiah Cousins hit several critical shots in the closing minutes of the Iowa State game that made a huge difference in the outcome of the game. He finished with 15 points, but was 0 for 6 in the first half and missed his first two shots in the second half before recording his initial points in the game.
• Ryan Spangler was a beast on the boards again in the Iowa State game. The No. 2 rebounder in the Big 12 posted a game-high 12 boards against the Cyclones, four of those coming on the offensive end.
• Jordan Woodard made two of three from three-point range against Iowa State. That gives him 26 for the season, nine more than he made all of last season. Woodard leads the Sooners in three-point shooting this season, hitting 53 percent from long range, compared with a 25 percent a year ago.
• Senior guard Dinjiyl Walker has been impressive coming off the bench this season. He had 10 points in 11 minutes in a reserve role against Iowa State, including two of four from beyond the three-point arc.
• Oklahoma is the only team in the Big 12 with a negative turnover margin, meaning they have more giveaways than takeaways in the turnover department so far this season. On Saturday night, however, OU committed just seven turnovers to Iowa State’s 10, and those 10 Cyclones turnovers turned into 16 Sooner points.
• The Sooners hit 12 of 14 from the free-throw line against Iowa State, including a perfect 6 of 6 in the critical final several minutes of the game with the outcome still in doubt.