OU Basketball Rewind: Sooners Stumble Way to 10-Point Win

In case you haven’t noticed, there is something different about this OU basketball team.

It refuses to lose – even when the final outcome might indicate otherwise. Case in point: the triple overtime loss on the road at Kansas in one of the toughest environments for a visiting team anywhere in college basketball. Only three times in almost a decade has a visiting team come out of Allen Fieldhouse with a victory over the Jayhawks, and Oklahoma came oh so close to being the fourth team to do so, something even diehard Kansas fans will readily acknowledge.

The follow-up game for the Sooners against Kansas State on Saturday was not a typical OU basketball game, however – not by current standards, anyway – but this Sooner team is just too good to let little things get in its way and alter the course of victory. Oklahoma ended up prevailing 86-76, which wasn’t as much a surprise as how the Sooners got there.

Jan 9, 2016; Norman, OK, USA; Oklahoma Sooners forward Khadeem Lattin (12) blocks a shot attempt by Kansas State Wildcats forward Wesley Iwundu (25) during the first half at Lloyd Noble Center. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports /

Kansas State entered Saturday’s game with No. 2-ranked Oklahoma hungry for a conference win. The Wildcats had lost their first two league games – one by four points in double overtime to West Virginia and another by three points on the road at Texas – and wanted to avoid going 0-3 to begin conference play after posting a 10-2 record against nonconference opponents.

If ever there was a more favorable time for K-State to play the red-hot Sooners on the road it was on this particular Saturday. Although Oklahoma has been virtually unbeatable at home the past two seasons, having won 21 of its last 22 games playing at home before Saturday, that one loss was to Kansas State last season and the Sooners were coming off an exhausting, highly emotional, nationally televised game at Kansas just five days before. So a physical letdown would not have been out of the question, especially against an opponent considered to be far inferior to the talent level and experience of this year’s Oklahoma team.

The Sooners dispelled any notion of a letdown early on in Saturday’s contest with the Wildcats, hitting five of their first seven shots and firing out to an 18-4 advantage in the opening five and a half minutes of the game. OU opened up a 21-point first-half advantage before the first signs of carryover fatigue began to surface. K-State went on a 14-0 run in the final four minutes of the first half to close within nine points of the Sooners at the break.

The second half was played out more evenly, with the Sooners several times stretching their lead to double digits only to have Kansas State reel the OU advantage back in to a more manageable deficit. The Sooners contributed to the Wildcat resilience by committing an unusually high 20 turnovers, six of them attributed to All-American and National Player of the Year candidate Buddy Hield.

No turnover is a good, but if anyone can be excused for committing one it is Hield, who more than makes up for any lost points by the ones he puts on the board. And on Saturday, the Sooner senior star was particularly efficient on the offensive end, scoring 31 points on just 14 shots (11 of 14), including six of eight from three-point range. It was the sixth time this season, and fifth in the last eight games, that Hield has scored 30 or more points. He increased his Big 12-leading scoring average to 26.6, seven points better than the next best Big 12 player, Georges Niang of Iowa State.

In addition to Hield’s game-high 31 points, Jordan Woodard contributed 19 and sophomore Khadeem Lattin had his best game of the season with 10 points, 10 rebounds and six blocked shots.

Jan 9, 2016; Norman, OK, USA; Oklahoma Sooners forward Ryan Spangler (00) reverses direction while guarded by Kansas State Wildcats forward Dean Wade (32) during the first half at Lloyd Noble Center. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports /

It didn’t seem like it in the real-time flow of the game, but Oklahoma shot better than its 48 percent season average, hitting 35 of 62 from the field for 56 percent, and that included 11 of 19 from behind the three-point line. The Sooners also lived up to their conference-leading standing in field-goal percentage defense, holding K-State below its 42 percent season average.

All in all, it was a solid win for the 13-1 Sooners, although not nearly as crisp a performance as this OU band of brothers is capable of. The road ahead doesn’t get any easier for Lon Kruger’s squad. A number of college basketball experts believe the Sooners deserve to hold on to the No. 2 spot in the national rankings despite the loss to Kansas, but the next three games will certainly challenge that top-two ranking, with a Bedlam battle at Oklahoma State on Wednesday, back home to face 17th-ranked West Virginia on Saturday, and then another Big Monday road contest on Jan. 18, this time at No. 13 Iowa State.

No time to relax, for sure.

Here’s some more of the good, bad an ugly – and all three were present in Saturday’s Sooner victory – from OU’s win over Kansas State:

Oklahoma has exceed 80 points in eight consecutive games and in 12 of its 14 games this season. At least three Sooner players have scored in double digits in all but one OU game this season.

Buddy Hield needs three more made three-point shots to become the Oklahoma career leader in that category.

OU set a season high with 23 assists on 35 field goals.

Isaiah Cousins

led the Sooners with five assists and

Buddy Hield

had five.