Oklahoma basketball: Numbers to know from OU’s lucky No. 13 win

The Oklahoma men’s basketball team found itself in catch-up mode for most of the game with TCU at Lloyd Noble Center on Saturday, but not at the final buzzer, which is when it counts the most.

The Sooners pulled out a 76-74 win over the 25th-ranked Horned Frogs (12-3, 1-2), but it was a long uphill climb to get there. Oklahoma led for just 10 of the 40 minutes in the game, and trailed virtually the entire second half.

Oklahoma trailed 43-37 at halftime, but came out firing in the second session, knotting the score at 44 with a 7-1 outburst in the opening four minutes. The score was deadlocked three times in the second half as the two teams traded mini runs. The Sooners took their first lead of the second half, at 61-60 on a free throw by Christian James at the 4:24 mark.

With under a minute to go and TCU up by three and with the ball, a steal by Aaron Calixte led to a breakaway bucket by James and a foul. James converted the free throw to break a 71-all tie and put OU up by one. Twenty seconds later, Kristian Doolittle who lead the Sooners’ offensive attack with a career-high 24 points, sank a pair of free throws to stretch OU’s lead to 74-71.

Just when it looked like the Sooners finally had the Horned Frogs on the ropes, Alex Robinson rattled in a game-tying three-ball to erase the OU lead and put the outcome back in doubt.

That’s when Doolittle, who carried OU down the stretch, had the final say, knocking down a two-point shot with five seconds to go that proved to be the game winner. The victory improved the Sooners’ overall record to 13-2 this season and a perfect 5-0 at home.

Here are some other telling numbers that played a role in the Sooners’ win over TCU:

3 – No. 25 TCU was OU’s third ranked opponent in the Sooners’ last four games.

4 — The OU scoring continued to display a balanced attack, with four players scoring in double figures (Doolittle 24, James 15, Calixte and Brady Manek 12 each).

8 – Three point field goals by TCU’s Kouat Noi in 12 attempts. His 30 points in 34 minutes off the bench led all scorers in the game.

9/8 — Blocked shots/steals by Oklahoma against the Horned Frogs.

17 — TCU outrebounded Oklahoma 42-31, including 17 on the offensive glass. The Horned Frogs were only able to convert those 17 offensive boards into eight points, however.

21 — The Sooners scored 21 points off of 12 TCU turnovers.

22-12 — Rebounding margin in favor of OU in the second half.

26.7 — Oklahoma held TCU to a 26.7 field-goal percentage in the second half and outscored the Horned Frogs 39-31 over the final 20 minutes to pull out the come-from-behind victory.

32 — Bench points by the TCU reserves, outscoring the Sooner bench 32-7. Thirty of TCU’s 32 points from the bench were by one player (Kouat Noi).