Oklahoma basketball: Kansas State knocks out No. 4 Sooners

The magic disappeared for Oklahoma basketball on Tuesday night, and Kansas State had everything to do with it.

Kansas State shot a sizzling percentage in the second half and left OU in a cloud of dust in slamming the door on the fourth-ranked Sooners and handing the visitors their worst loss of the season, 85-69.

OU’s 69 points were the Sooners’ fewest in a game this season, 24 less than their nation-best 93.6 scoring average.

The tone for the game was set very early as K-State raced out to a 23-9 advantage a little over eight minutes into the game. The Sooners fought back and actually took a 33-32 lead just under two minutes remaining in the first half. That was the last time Oklahoma would have the lead, however, as the unranked Wildcats (13-5, 3-3) took a 38-33 advantage into intermission and totally dominated the second half.

At one stretch in the second half, after Oklahoma had narrowed the Kansas State lead to five points, the Wildcats made eight of nine shots to pull away for good.

For much of the game, the Sooner defensive effort was nonexistent as K-State consistently finished virtually uncontested shots, and the Wildcat defense was like a blanket on Trae Young, forcing other Oklahoma players to beat them.

Young was held to just eight points in the first half and was off the mark for most of the night, but still finished with a team-high 20 points for the Sooners, but 10 points below his season average. The OU freshman phenom was just 8 of 21 from the field and two of ten from behind the three-point arc, largely because of double teams and tough Kansas State on-ball defense.

Not only did Young struggle with his shot, but the K-State defensive pressure forced the nation’s scoring and assist leader into numerous errors handling and distributing the basketball. Young’s 12 turnovers were more than Kansas State committed as a team (11).

Barry Brown led K-State in scoring with 24 points, and Dean Wade added 21 of his own, Freshman Cartier Diarra contributed 16 points, 10 above his season average. The Wildcats shot 56.5 percent for the game and were almost as proficient from three-point range, going nine of 17.

Rashard Odomes scored 16 for the Sooners, connecting on seven of 10 field-goal tries, and Brady Manek had 12.

Kansas State had 14 fast-break points and scored 19 points on 20 Oklahoma turnovers.

The loss was Oklahoma’s sixth consecutive loss at Kansas State. It was the Wildcats first victory over a ranked team this season and their first over a top-five team since upsetting then-No. 1 OU in 2015-16.

OU head coach Lon Kruger is now 5-8 against his alma mater.

The Sooners must learn from this loss, but they’re going to have to put it behind them fairly quickly, because they have another tough assignment this weekend, when they head to Stillwater, Oklahoma, for a Bedlam rematch.