Oklahoma basketball: Sooners seek sweep of season series with TCU

Oklahoma basketball has yet to face five Big 12 teams, but on Saturday they will go up against the TCU Horned Frogs for the second time in as many weeks.

TCU visits Norman this weekend with a 13-3 overall record and the No. 16 ranking nationally. The Frogs were undefeated when they hosted Oklahoma two Saturdays ago, but they’ve gone just 1-3 since then. They have lost their last two games, including a 99-98 loss to Texas in double overtime, by a combined five points.

Oklahoma and TCU faced off at TCU in the conference opener for both teams. The Sooners jumped out to an 11-0 lead in the first three and a half minutes, with Trae Young scoring eight of OU’s first 11 points.  The Horned Frogs made up the difference over the next four minutes and pulled ahead of the visiting Sooners to lead by five, 46-41, at the half.

The Sooners did not take the lead in the second half until seven seconds remained in the game, when Young scored the final two of his game-high 39 points with a pair of free throws, giving OU a 90-89 lead. TCU’s Kenrich Williams missed a three-point attempt at the other end, and Oklahoma held on to seal the victory. Williams, the Horned Frogs’ high scorer in the game with 22, had made two of three treys before missing at the end.

Junior Christian James is second on the Sooner squad in scoring this season, with a 12.7 average, and 6-foot, 9-inch freshman Brady Manek contributes 10.5 a game.

A victory at home on Saturday would give Oklahoma (13-2, 3-1) a season sweep over TCU. The Sooners, fresh off a 75-65 win at home on Tuesday over Texas Tech, are 8-0 at Lloyd Noble Center this season and 11-0 dating back to last season.

The Horned Frogs won two of three over the Sooners a year ago, but OU owns a 20-4 all-time record against TCU and is 9-3 against TCU since the Frogs became members of the Big 12 in 2012. TCU has never won in Norman in 10 visits.

Oklahoma, ranked ninth this week in both national polls, leads the Big 12 in scoring and is second nationally, averaging 93.1 points a game. Young leads the Sooners on offense with a nation-best 29.2 points a game. TCU is second best in the Big 12 in scoring offense, putting up nearly 88 points a game. Both teams like to play fast, which would indicate that the matchup on Saturday should be high scoring.

All five TCU starters average in double figures, led by Williams at 15.3 points a contest. Right behind him in the scoring column is 6-foot, 11-inch senior Vlad Brodziansky (14.4). The Horned Frogs have good scoring balance with eight players averaging 7.0 or more points a game.

TCU is second in the Big 12 with a .503 shooting percentage, just ahead of OU (.496). The Horned Frogs’ are tied with Kansas as the league’s best from three-point range, connecting on 41.4 percent of their treys.

Oklahoma is two wins shy of matching its Big 12 win total for all of last season, when the Sooners went 5-13 in conference play.