Oklahoma Basketball: Six Shining Sooner Moments From 2015-16 Season
By Chip Rouse
Buddy Hield Takes Down Iowa State Single Handedly
Oklahoma finished the regular season in third place in the Big 12 standings, which gave the Sooners the No. 3 seed in this year’s Big 12 postseason tournament. That was the good news, but the not-so-good news was that the Sooners’ opening-draw paired them against Iowa State – the six seed, but also a 20-win team ranked in the nation’s top 25 – in arguably the most difficult quarterfinal matchup.
Prior to this year, Iowa State had eliminated the Sooners in two of the last three Big 12 Tournaments. This also marked a matchup featuring the two best players in the conference in OU’s Buddy Hield and Georges Niang of Iowa State.
The score was tied eight different times in the opening half before a seven-point burst late by Hield late in the half helped Oklahoma open up a 35-29 advantage at the intermission. Hield ended the first half with 16 points.
Four minutes into the second half, OU’s lead had grown to 10, and just under the 10-minute mark, the Sooner advantage was up to 14 points. That is the point in the game that Niang took over, rebounding, blocking shots and literally scoring at will. The Cyclone All-American scored 25 of his 31 points in the game in the second half before he fouled out with under a minute to go.
While Niang was blistering the Oklahoma defense in leading a valiant second-half comeback by Iowa State, Hield was more than keeping pace for the Sooners, scoring 21 additional points over the second 20 minutes to finish with a game high 37.
The Sooner superstar shot 67 percent for the game on 14 of 21 from the field. He also went a perfect nine of nine from the free-throw line and pulled down nine rebounds to almost single-handily lead Oklahoma to the victory, its second in three games against the Cyclones this season.
Although the Sooners were the home team as the higher-seeded team, the crowd was largely made up of Iowa State fans, who are widely known as among the best traveling fans in the Big 12, especially when it come to Big 12 Tournament games played in Kansas City.
That just made the victory even sweeter for Buddy Hield and Company.
Next: Buddy Hield's 37 Points Sends Oklahoma to Final Four