Oklahoma Basketball Notebook: Sooner Backcourt the Difference in NCAA Opener

The scoreboard read 82 to 68, signaling what would appear to be a fairly comfortable victory for Oklahoma basketball in its first-round NCAA Tournament game against Cal State-Bakersfield.

To the non-observer, however, that would be very misrepresentative of how close the game was for a good part of the 40-minute contest, and especially when the game clock slide under the four-minute mark in the time remaining.

With Oklahoma leading by a narrow four-point margin, 69-65, and getting late in the game, it became “Buddy” time for the Sooners, and the two-time Big 12 Player of the Year delivered, and not just on the offensive end.

Buddy Hield followed a clutch three-pointer by Jordan Woodard with one of his own patented three-point rainbows to quickly stretch the OU margin to double digits, and down the stretch Hield added a pair of free throws to put OU up by 10 to go with two blocks and two big rebounds.

As many wins as there were by double-digit-seeded teams so far in this year’s NCAA Tournament, it probably wasn’t surprising that the Sooners didn’t run away and hide over the 15th-seeded Cal State-Bakersfield squad.

It may not have been a dominant performance by Oklahoma, the No. 2 seed in the West Region, but there was plenty to like about the win, not the least of which was the opportunity to advance and play again on Sunday.

Here are a few more good things to like about the Sooners’ opening-round tournament win, playing before a virtual home crowd in Oklahoma City:

• Oklahoma scored 20 points off of 14 Cal State-Bakersfield turnovers.
• The Sooners 11 three-pointers (in 20 attempts) marked the 22nd time in 33 games this season that Oklahoma has hit 10 or more threes in a game.
• Buddy Hield’s game-high 27 points was the 17th time this season he has scored at least 25 points and the 24th time he has hit the 20-point level in a game.
• Senior guard Isaiah Cousins has been one of the unsung Sooner stars all season long. Cousins had 16 points and five assists in the win over Cal State-Bakersfield, and was three for three behind the three-point line. His 16-point performance was the 26th time he has hit double figures in the scoring column this season and the 16th time in his last 19 games.
• Oklahoma received 13 points from its bench in its opening-round NCAA Tournament victory, nine of those coming from redshirt Freshman Dante Buford.
• OU scored 30 of its 82 points in the paint, which is a good sign for a team that has relied heavily on its three-point shooting for most of this season.