Oklahoma basketball: Three-pointers on a near OU miss at Kansas

Oklahoma basketball came close to snapping a long losing streak at Kansas, but fell just short in 63-59 to the sixth-ranked Jayhawks.

The Sooners (6-4, 2-3) played without starter Brady Manek, who missed the game because of COVID-19 protocols, and left everything they had on the floor in a surprisingly strong showing on the road against one of the best teams in the country.

Sophomore forward Jalen Hill also missed the game for the Sooners due to COVID issues.

Senior guard Austin Reaves played most of the game for the Sooners and led the team with 20 points along with nine rebounds. De’Vion Harmon and Alondes Williams added nine points apiece for Oklahoma.

It was a two-point game with under a minute to play, when David McCormick scored for Kansas from the lane with 15 seconds left to expand the lead to four points at 63-59. Reaves missed a three-point attempt at the other end, and that’s the way the game ended.

The Sooners led 33-31 at the half, with Reaves scoring 15 of his 20 points in the opening 20 minutes. Kansas took a 35-34 lead two minutes into the second half and led for much of the second half.

OU regained the lead, 57-56, on a jump shot from the free-throw line with two and a half minutes left to go in the game, but McCormick scored over the Sooners’ Kur Kuath on the ensuing possession to grab the lead right back for the Jayhawks.

Kansas held on from there to preserve the victory.

Seven points was Kansas’ largest second-half lead, and most of the way the difference was two-to-four points.

McCormick led the Jayhawks with 17 points, and Ochai Ogbaji contributed 14.

Oklahoma took 12 more shots than Kansas, but shot 10 percent worse than the Jayhawks (38 percent to 48 percent). The difference in the game was at the free-throw line. The Jayhawks took 19 free throw and made just 11, but those 11 free throws were four more than OU, which made 7 of 10 from the charity line.

After playing three ranked teams in the last week and two ranked in the top 10 in the past three days, Oklahoma returns home to host TCU on Tuesday night.

Here are three main takeaways from a gutsy OU game at Kansas:

Sooners overcome the absence of Brady Manek

Had you not seen the game and saw the final score, you would not have thought Oklahoma would make the game as close as it was without the availability of Manek, a senior starter and the team’s second leading scorer. Manek averages 13.2 points per game and is one of the Big 12’s best three-point marksmen.

Poor shooting doomed the Sooners’ upset bid

Oklahoma shot 38 percent for the game, the second straight game the Sooners have shot less than 40 percent. The Sooners were just 10 of 30 in the second half. Because of that, they were not able to take advantage of an eight- and a half-minute stretch in the second half during which Kansas failed to make a field goal.

OU’s losing streak at Kansas grows to 20 games

The last time Oklahoma won a game at Allen Fieldhouse was three years before the Big 12 came into existence. The Sooners won 80-77 at Kansas in 1993. Saturday’s defeat was Oklahoma’s 20th consecutive playing Kansas on the Jayhawks home floor. The four-point loss on Saturday was the closest the Sooners have come in Lawrence, however, since 2016 when Buddy Hield and Oklahoma took Kansas to three overtimes before falling 109-106.