Oklahoma basketball: Three-pointers from an Iowa State close call

The winless Iowa State Cyclones didn’t play like it, and Lon Kruger’s No. 9 Oklahoma basketball Sooners escaped with a 79-72 home victory on Saturday.

Iowa State, which has yet to win a conference game in eight tries and is just 2-11 on the season, rained three-balls throughout the game and with 48 points coming on 16 made three-point shots kept this game close right down to the end.

Although the Sooners opened up a 10-point advantage at a couple of points in the final five minutes of the game, but the OU margin for most of the second half was between three and five points.

Oklahoma had a four-point advantage at the break, 40-36, but the Cyclones continued to claw and fight in the second stanza and, after squaring the game at 43 and 53, took a 58-57 lead with 9:15 remaining in the game.

Austin Reaves, in his first game back after missing the last two because of COVID-19 contract tracing, scored a dozen of his 16 points in the first half, but it was Elijah Harkless and Umoja Gibson, a pair of transfers who were coming off the bench until the last several games, who carried the scoring load for the Sooners in this game with 19 and 18 points, respectively.

Reaves’ return to the OU starting lineup provided a big boost. In addition to his 16 points, he also pulled down eight rebounds and delivered an equal number of assists.

Junior guard Rasir Bolton led Iowa State with a game-high 21 points, including five of eight from deep. It was his second highest scoring output of the season. He had 25 in a four-point loss earlier in the season against West Virginia.

The Sooners shot 54.7 percent for the game, improving their record to 26-1 over the last two seasons when they shoot a higher field-goal percentage than their opponent. OU held the Cyclones to 38-percent on the offensive end.

Oklahoma does not play a midweek game this week because the scheduled home game against Baylor has been postponed because of COVID issues in the Baylor program. OU will next play on Saturday at West Virginia.

Depth of OU’s roster made the difference in this game

Sophomore guard De’Vion Harmon has averaged 17.2 points in his last six games, but he had just four points against Iowa State. The Sooner versatility was the difference in this game. While Austin Reaves, Brady Manek and De’Vion Harmon, Oklahoma’s three leading scorers on the season were held to a combined 29 points in this game. Elijah Harkless, Umoja Gibson and Jalen Hill picked up the slack with 19, 18 and 11 points, respectively.

In fact, Harkless, who has averaged 12.8 points in his last four games, scored the Sooner’s last nine points on Saturday.

Brady Manek’s contributions to the victory far exceed the scoring column

Making his first start in a handful of games following his recovery from a bout with COVID, Brady Manek played 32 minutes on Saturday. He scored nine points, but more impressive were his other contributions:15 rebounds and pinpoint passing that resulted in four assists. He also had several strong defensive stands against Iowa State big man Solomon Young.

While ISU was launching three-balls, the Sooners were attacking in the paint

While the Cyclone guards were comfortable firing up three-balls on just about every other possession — 31 of their 71 shots were taken from behind the three-point line — Oklahoma was attacking down low, scoring 36 points in the paint