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Oklahoma basketball: Notable numbers from an OU win for the ages

By Chip Rouse

MORGANTOWN, WV - FEBRUARY 29: Austin Reaves #12 of the Oklahoma Sooners handles the ball against Gabe Osabuohien #3 of the West Virginia Mountaineers at the WVU Coliseum on February 29, 2020 in Morgantown, West Virginia. (Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)
MORGANTOWN, WV - FEBRUARY 29: Austin Reaves #12 of the Oklahoma Sooners handles the ball against Gabe Osabuohien #3 of the West Virginia Mountaineers at the WVU Coliseum on February 29, 2020 in Morgantown, West Virginia. (Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images) /
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In a game Oklahoma basketball need to win, the Sooners couldn’t have looked worse in the opening 20 minutes of their regular-season finale at TCU on Saturday. TCU led OU 44-26 at the half, leaving the Sooners with their biggest halftime deficit of the season.

Fortunately for Sooner fans and OU’s NCAA Tournament hopes, the second half of the game was a much different story, turning what long appeared to be an ugly, blowout loss into an improbable victory that no one saw coming.

Oklahoma outscored the Horned Frogs 52-32 over the second 20 minutes to overcome an 18-point halftime deficit and win by two on a 15-foot fadeaway jump shot by Austin Reaves, the Sooner one-man band in this one, with just 0.5 seconds remaining on the game clock.

The victory, which will go down as the most dramatic Oklahoma win of the 2019-20 season, evened the Sooners’ Big 12 record at 9-9, the first time in four years OU has finished league play at .500 or better.

The win also appeared to assure Oklahoma’s appearance in the NCAA Tournament for the seventh time in the last nine seasons under head coach Lon Kruger.

Here are a few more compelling numbers that help tell the story of this most unlikely comeback victory by the Sooners:

2 — Oklahoma’s only lead in the game came on Austin Reaves’ last-second, buzzer-beating field goal with 0.5 remaining in regulation.

3 — The win earned the Sooners the No. 3 seed in the upcoming Big 12 Tournament. A loss would have dropped them all the way down to a No. 7 seed.

4 — Four TCU players scored in double figures in the game.

13 — Oklahoma committed 13 turnovers in the game, nine of which came in the first half.

19 — TCU scored 19 points off of fast breaks.

23-9 — The Sooners scoring run over the final five mintes of the game.

24 — Previous top scoring game by the Sooners’ Reaves this season (in a losing effort at Oklahoma State on Feb. 22).

40 — OU grabbed 40 rebounds in the game (23 in the second half), including 14 offensive rebounds. The Sooners outrebounded TCU 40-37). OU is 12-1 this season when it outrebounds its opponent.

52 — Percentage of Oklahoma’s total points scored in the game by Austin Reaves.

53.3 — Oklahoma’s three-point shooting percentage in the second half against TCU (8 of 15) and shooting just 12.5 percent on three-balls in the first half (1 of 8).

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