Oklahoma basketball: Three-pointers from OU’s 36-point rout of TCU

Oklahoma basketball missed its first five shots in the game, but heated up quickly after that, leaving TCU in the dust on the way to an 82-46 win on Tuesday.

De’Vion Harmon led the way for the Sooners with a game-high 22 points as Oklahoma won by its biggest margin in a Big 12 game since the 2014-15 season.

OU opened up a 12-point advantage, 34-22, at the half, but it was the second half where the Sooners took complete command of the game. The outcome of the game was never really in doubt, but a 16-2 Oklahoma run early in the second half signaled it was time for the visiting Horned Frogs to warm up the bus.

Oklahoma completed a two-game season sweep over TCU and extended their win streak over the Horned Frogs to eight games. The win improved the Sooners record to 7-4 overall and 3-3 in the Big 12. OU has never lost to TCU in Norman.

After the game, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi, of “Bracketology” fame, moved Oklahoma from “Last four teams out” to ‘Last four teams in” in his projections of the field for the 2021 Men’s Basketball Tournament.”

Four main learnings from OU’s win over TCU:

It was OU’s defense as much as the offense that won this game

Your first impression in looking at the final score is how good the Oklahoma offense was in winning by 36 points. The offense did play well — and did so without its second-leading scorer in Brady Manek, who missed his second straight game because of COVID-19 protocols — but the huge margin of victory was actually the result of the Sooners’ defensive intensity.

That intensity on the defensive end of the floor has been on display in consecutive games. Defense was a prime reason OU lost by just four points on Saturday while playing on the road at then-No. 6 Kansas.

TCU shot just 34.6 percent for the game, which ties their second worst performance of the season, and was just 4 of 19 (21.1) percent from behind the three-point line.

Sophomore guard De’Vion Harmon ties his season high for points

Prior to Tuesday night’s game, Harmon had scored over 20 point just twice in his 41 career games at OU. Both times, it was against the same opponent, the University of Texas-San Antonio. He scored a career-high 23 in his very first game as a Sooner in 2019 and 22 against the very same team this season.

In his other 39 games, Harmon had averaged 7.4 points a game.

On Tuesday night, with approximately 2,000 socially-distanced fans watching from the stands at Lloyd Noble Center, Harmon erupted for his third game of 20-plus points on 9 of 16 shooting and a career-high four three-pointers in seven attempts. He also contributed six rebounds and four of 20 Sooner assists on the night.

Sooners take full advantage of TCU miscues

Oklahoma lead the Big 12 in the fewest turnovers per game. The Sooners average 11.3 turnovers per game, and that figure was even better in Tuesday’s game with TCU as OU committed just five turnovers in the game.

Meanwhile, the Sooners converted 16 TCU turnovers into 25 points. Oklahoma also had 14 fast-break points.