Oklahoma Basketball: Sooners Beat TCU, Earn No. 3 Seed in Big 12 Tourney
By Chip Rouse
The second half of the 2015-16 season has been a struggle for Oklahoma basketball, but the Sooners closed out the regular on Saturday with a closer-than-expected win over last-place TCU.
It wasn’t pretty – which seems to be a recurring refrain in Sooner basketball games the past several weeks – but it was gritty enough performance by Oklahoma to overcome a serious upset bid by TCU on Senior Day at Schollmaier Arena in Ft. Worth.
Oklahoma got off to another slow start in the game and trailed for more than half of the opening 20 minutes. The Sooners led by one, 31-30, at the intermission. Eight minutes into the second half, OU had opened up a nine-point advantage at 46-37, but an 8-0 run by the Horned Frogs made it 46-45. And at the seven-minute mark in the second half, which has turned out to be a nightmare time in the game for the Sooners in their last two outings, the Oklahoma lead was just two points at 52-50.
That was as close as TCU would come, as the Sooners gradually lengthened their lead and made their free throws late to hold off the Horned Frogs for a 75-67 victory, It was win No. 24 on the season for 6th-ranked Oklahoma, equaling the number of wins by last year’s Sooner team.
Buddy Hield led the Sooners with a game-high 21 points and was the team leader with six rebounds, but he also committed five of Oklahoma’s 17 turnovers. Junior Brandon Parrish, who averages eight points a game, led the TCU scoring attack with 20 points on 8 of 16 field goals and played all 40 minutes for the Horned Frogs.
By virtue of West Virginia’s win over Baylor on Saturday, Oklahoma will be the No. 3 seed in the postseason Big 12 Championship. The Sooners’ second-round opponent will be No. 6 Iowa State. The two teams split games in the regular season, each team winning on its home court.
Had No. 10 West Virginia lost at No. 19 Baylor, Oklahoma would have been awarded the Big 12 two seed and would have been matched up with Texas Tech in the second round.
What’s interesting about all this is that the Sooners are ranked higher nationally than the Mountaineers and beat them twice this season, but are seeded lower than West Virginia in the conference tournament.
What Went Right for Oklahoma in the TCU Game
- Very little. This does not look like the same Oklahoma team we saw for the first 21 games of the season.
- Buddy Hield’s 21-point performance marked the 21st time in OU’s 30 games this season that their All-American has reached the 20-point level.
- Hield’s three three-pointers in the game gave him 79 treys in the regular season, a new Big 12 record.
- The Sooners had been getting very little offensive production from their bench, but the reserves contributed 16 points in this game, six each by Dante Buford and Dinjiyl Walker.
- Oklahoma hit double digits in made three-point shots (11 of 22) for the 21st time this season.
- The Sooners shot 50 percent from the field and from the three-point line. The last time they shot this well was nine games ago, when the hit the 50-percent mark in shooting percentage in the first meeting with TCU, a 23-point Oklahoma win.
- Ryan Spangler hit three of three from the three-point line, the second time in the last three games he has had three treys in a game.
What Went Wrong for the Sooners in the TCU Game
- OU was extremely sloppy with the ball, committing 17 turnovers in the game that led to 24 TCU points.
- The Sooners have one of the country’s best transition offenses, but TCU outscored OU in fast-break points 11-5, most all of them off of Sooner ball-handing problems.
- Isaiah Cousins did not have a single point in the game until he made two free throws with only 5:19 remaining in the game. He finished with 10 points, but seven of those came from the free-throw line, where he hit seven of eight late in the game.