Oklahoma basketball: Sooners use Harmon-y to knock off No. 9 Kansas

De’Vion Harmon got the Oklahoma basketball team off to a fast start early and Austin Reaves finished off an impressive 75-68 Sooner win over their all-time nemesis, No. 9 Kansas.

Kansas is the only Big 12 team that owns a winning record all-time over Oklahoma, — and by a gigantic margin (150-69) — which is what made this win so sweet for the Crimson and Cream.

With Kansas leading 16-10 in the early going, Oklahoma ran off 14 unanswered points to go up 24-16 midway through the first half and set the tone for the game. Harmon was a big reason for that, knocking down a couple of three-balls early for the Sooners and scoring 13 of his game-high 22 points in the first half.

The Sooners led by one, 29-28, at halftime, but Kansas came out firing in the second half and briefly went out in front scoring the first four points after intermission. Oklahoma responded with a 14-6 run over the next four minutes to regain the lead at 43-38.

The game was tied at 52 with a couple of ticks under nine minutes to go, but that’s when the Sooners went to work to put the game away and hand the Jayhawks their third straight loss.

Brady Manek, in just his second game back after having to sit out two games because of COVID-19, hit a big three-point shot to put the Sooners up by four, 58-54, and Kansas got no closer than three points the rest of the way.

Ironically, the last time Kansas lost three consecutive games was in 2013, and the team that hung the third straight loss on the Jayhawks that season was the Sooners in a game in Norman.

Marcus Garrett led Kansas with 21 points to go along with a dozen rebounds. The Jayhawks’ leading  scorer on the season, OchaI Ogbaji, was held to 10 points, and six of those came on a pair of three-pointers with under two minutes to go.

Oklahoma improved its home record to 8-1 this season and handed the Jayhawks their third loss in the last four trips to Norman. The Sooners are now 9-4 overall, 5-3 in the Big 12 and are in sole possession of third place in the Big 12 standings.

Here are three prime learnings from Oklahoma’s upset win over Kansas:

De’Vion Harmon is giving the Sooners another big-time scoring threat

Sophomore point guard De’Vion Harmon has led Oklahoma in scoring in its last three wins. His 22 points on Saturday led all scorers. Over his past three games, all Oklahoma wins, he has shot nearly 60 percent and totaled 60 points. Twelve of his 22 points on Saturday were three-pointers. In the last three games, Harmon is 10 of 21 from behind the three-point line.

Harmon’s high school teammate, Jalen Wilson, plays for Kansas. Harmon and Wilson both had nine points in OU’s loss at Kansas earlier, but on Saturday, Harmon outscored his former teammate and good friend 22 to 13.

Kansas played right into Oklahoma’s free-throw-shooting strength

Oklahoma is the best free-throw-shooting team in the Big 12 and one of the best in the country in that statistical category. In the second half on Saturday, Kansas committed six team fouls before six minutes was gone on the clock.

After making just one trip to the free-throw line in the first half, the Sooners were in the bonus before midway through the second half and ended up making 18 of 21 free throws in the second 20 minutes, a good number of them coming in the closing minutes. Austin Reaves, Oklahoma’s best foul shooter, was clutch down the stretch and made 10 of 11 free throws, which turned out to be a big difference-maker in the game.

Oklahoma guard play was the difference in the game.

The Oklahoma guards, namely De’Vion Harmon, Austin Reaves and Umoja Gibson, accounted for 48 of the Sooners’ 75 total points. That group was also 14 of 16 from the free-throw stripe.

Next up

The road doesn’t get any easier for the Sooners, who will play their third top-10 team this month when they visit No. 4 Texas on Tuesday.