Stormin in Norman
Fansided

Oklahoma Basketball: Sooners Get Tough, Take Down Kansas State 81-51

By Chip Rouse

Feb 25, 2017; Norman, OK, USA; Oklahoma Sooners guard Rashard Odomes (1) drives to the basket in front of Kansas State Wildcats guard Kamau Stokes (3) during the second half at Lloyd Noble Center. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 25, 2017; Norman, OK, USA; Oklahoma Sooners guard Rashard Odomes (1) drives to the basket in front of Kansas State Wildcats guard Kamau Stokes (3) during the second half at Lloyd Noble Center. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports /
facebooktwitterreddit

Wins have been hard to come by this season for Lon Kruger’s Oklahoma basketball squad, but the Sooners got a big one, taking down their coach’s alma mater, Kansas State, and doing it in convincing fashion.

Oklahoma led by 13 at the break while not shooting all that well, but the Sooners turned it up in the second 20 minutes, shooting over 50 percent on the way to an 81-51 victory.

The victory margin was the Sooners second largest of the season. They defeated Northwestern State in their season opener 97-61.

Hardly anything went right for the Wildcats, who played arguably their poorest game of the season in losing by 30 points to the struggling Sooners. It was the lowest point total of the season for K-State and also their poorest shooting game. The Wildcats shot a miserable 25 percent from the field, hitting just 15 of 56 field-goal attempts.

Kansas State has now lost six of its last eight games and is in a fight with TCU for what many believe will be the final Big 12 spot awarded for the forthcoming NCAA Tournament. TCU also lost on Saturday, a one-point loss at home to West Virginia.

Neither team shot well from deep. Oklahoma connected on just five of 21 three-pointers, but K-State fared even worse hitting just 3 of 23 three-balls.

OU was led in the scoring column by Khadeem Lattin, who hit 5 of 8 shots from the field and totaled a game-high 17 points to go along with 10 rebounds. Sophomore Rashard Odomes added 16 more. It was the most points scored by Lattin since the Sooners first game of the season, when he delivered 19.

More from OU Basketball

Freshman Kameron McGusty saw his 15-game streak of scoring 10 or more points come to an end.

The Sooners forced the Wildcats into 17 turnovers, 11 of those coming on steals, and also blocked six shots.

In the first game this season between these two teams, won by K-State by 11 points in Manhattan, Oklahoma had just 16 free-throw attempts. The Sooners took 31 foul shots on Saturday and made 23 of them.

Just one Kansas State player reached double figures in the game. I Maurice came off the Wildcat bench when senior D.J. Johnson encountered early foul trouble and contributed a team-high 11 points.

Even more significant than Oklahoma ringing up its 10th win of the season and just its fourth victory in 16 Big 12 games, the win over K-State marked the 600th career win for Sooner head coach Lon Kruger, who is in his sixth season at Oklahoma. And it comes against the team he once played for and later served as head coach.

One of the best scoring teams in the conference a year ago, Oklahoma has had a difficult time scoring as many as 70 points in a game since the beginning of Big 12 play. The 81 points scored against K-State was just the third time in the last 10 games the Sooners have gone over the 80-point level, but also the second time in the past week (they scored 92 in a four-point loss at Oklahoma State last Saturday).

Home/OU Basketball