February 25 – Oklahoma 81, Kansas State 51
I believe few Sooner fans will quibble with the selection of OU’s third to the last games of 2016-17, a 30-point blowout of Kansas State in Norman, as Oklahoma’s best single-game performance of the season.
K-State had handled the Sooners rather easily in the earlier game between the two teams plated in Manhattan. The Wildcats burst out of the gate from the opening tipoff, opening up a 14-3 lead from which OU was never able to recover, despite a then career-high 20 point performance by Sooner freshman Kameron McGusty.
No one expected that the same result would happen when the two teams got together in Norman, but neither did they expect the Sooners to dominate the game the way they did.
Oklahoma didn’t necessarily shoot the ball all that well – only 44 percent for the game – but they played what may have been their best all-around game of the season. Junior big-man Khadeem Lattin lead all Sooner scorers, posting a double-double of 17 points and 10 rebounds to go along with three blocked shots.
It certainly didn’t hurt that K-State couldn’t find the bottom of the basket, shooting just 25 percent for the game. Attribute some of that trouble on the offensive end by the Wildcats to Oklahoma’s defensive play.
“We played hard from start to finish,” said OU head coach Lon Kruger. Something that was not the case for a good part of the season – not as much the hard part as playing smart at the end of games.
It all came together in the game against K-State in Norman, as the Sooners steamrolled to their second biggest winning margin of the season and the biggest over a Big 12 opponent, 81-51.