Oklahoma basketball’s lethargic opening halves have been a lingering problem this season. On Saturday, at home against Kansas State, the Sooners struggled putting the ball in the basket in both halves, and it nearly cost them the game.
The Sooners (10-3, 0-1) fell behind early and played catch up virtually the entire way. They came to life in the closing minutes when it counted most, though, overcoming an 11-point second-half deficit to defeat Kansas State 66-61 and preserve their unbeaten record at home this season.
Austin Reeves scored nine of his team-high 21 points over the final seven minutes, and the Oklahoma defense held Kansas State scoreless over the final three and a half minutes of the game to flip the score and steal a victory in a game that K-State led for almost 34 of the full 40 minutes.
With a little over a minute and a half remaining in the game, Oklahoma took its first lead since 5-3 at the 17:34 mark in the first half. Reaves drained a step-back, three-point shot to put the Sooners up 63-61. De’Vion Harmon, Kristian Doolittle and Reaves added free throws from there to close out the OU scoring and seal the victory.
Doolittle, the team’s leading scorer coming into the game and returning to action after a one-game suspension, contributed 19 points in the win.
Led by Xavier Sneed, Kansas State took a 33-30 lead into halftime, the 10th time this season Oklahoma has trailed at the half. Sneed scored 10 of his team-high 22 points in the first 20 minutes.
The Wildcats came out of the locker room on fire to begin the second half, going on an 11-3 run to widen its halftime advantage to 44-33. The Sooners cut the K-State lead to five, at 44-39, but a three-ball by Sneed stretched the lead back to eight.
Sneed committed his fourth personal foul with eight and a half minutes to go in the game and was forced to go to the bench. That’s when the Sooners began their game-winning comeback. From the time Sneed left the floor to the end of the game, Oklahoma outscored Kansas State 33-17, and that was the difference in the game.
Oklahoma managed to gain the victory despite not shooting all that well. The Sooners hit just 19 of 51 field-goal attempts for 37.3 percent. Fortunately, OU’s defense was able to keep the Sooners in the game. holding K-State to just 35 percent shooting.
The Sooners made just 5 of 23 three-point tries (21.7 percent), but Reaves made four of them, all but one coming in the second half. K-State controlled all but about four minutes in the game, largely behind three-point shooting. The Cats launched 37 three-point shots, canning 12 of them.
Kansas State, the reigning Big 12 co-champion, fell to 7-6 on the season.
Next up for the Sooners is a Red River Showdown at Texas on Wednesday.