Oklahoma Basketball: Six Shining Sooner Moments From 2015-16 Season
By Chip Rouse
Buddy Hield Receives Standing Ovation From Kansas Jayhawk Fans
No. 2 Oklahoma visiting No. 1 Kansas on Monday night national television. It doesn’t get much better than that, and this contest would prove to be worthy of all the pre-game hype.
The Sooners fell behind in the early going and allowed Kansas to build up an 11-point advantage with just under six minutes to go in the first half. Over the final six minutes of the half, however, Oklahoma went on a 23-8 run to take a 44-41 lead into halftime.
The Sooners widened their lead to 10 points three minutes into the second half as the capacity-filled Allen Fieldhouse crowd sat stunned. The Jayhawks fought back, though, and by the 5:45 mark in the game the game was tied.
The two teams traded the lead back and forth, with four lead changes down the stretch, and both had the opportunity to win the game in the closing second of regulation. After 40 minutes, though, the score stood at 77-all.
So into overtime the game went – not once, not twice but three overtime sessions – before the Jayhawks pulled out a 109-106 victory. The game was so compelling and filled with dramatic shots on both sides (relive some of the action with these video highlights) that the Sooners remained No. 2 in the national polls despite the heartbreaking loss.
Before the game, if someone would have told you that Buddy Hield and Jordan Woodard would combine for 73 points by themselves and the Sooners would lose the game, you wouldn’t have believed it.
Hield made 8 of 15 three-point shots in the game and Woodard buried six of nine, as Oklahoma made 16 of 33 three balls on the night.
At the time, the media was calling this the game of the year, and looking back over what now is the entire season, I believe you can still call it as such. Possibly only this season’s national championship game, settled by two opposing three-point shots with under 10 seconds to go in the game was equal or better in terms of the dramatics and uncertainty of the outcome right to the very end.
After the game, while being interviewed by an ESPN television reporter, Hield was given a standing ovation by the Kansas crowd. Something that happens very rarely at Allen Fieldhouse – or anywhere in college basketball, for that matter – to a player on the opposing team.
Next: Ryan Spangler Unstoppable in Big Bedlam Win Over Oklahoma State