Oklahoma basketball: Bedlam brawler by the numbers
By Chip Rouse
Saturday’s Oklahoma basketball game against Oklahoma State was a street battle between two in-state rivals that do not like each other.
The Cowboys got out of Norman with a big win behind a 40-point performance from their freshman superstar, Cade Williams, and now they head home to Stillwater with a good chance to sweep the 2021 Bedlam series from their hated rival 80 miles to the south.
Cunningham’s career-high scoring effort clearly was the number that stands out the most from Saturday’s game, but there were plenty more that tell the story of the Oklahoma State overtime win, only its second in Norman in its last 10 visits.
6 — Jerry Palm, the CBS Sports “Bracketology” guru, has dropped Oklahoma from a No. 2 seed to a projected No. 6 seed in this year’s NCAA Tournament after suffering its second straight loss this week.
9-0 — Oklahoma’s record this season coming into Saturday’s game when it scored at least 78 points.
11-0 — An 11-0 run by Oklahoma right before halftime gave the Sooners a 38-31 lead at the half. OU widened the advantage to 41-31 in the early moments of the second half, the widest margin by either team in the game.
16 — Lead changes in the game. The score was tied 10 times.
17 — Oklahoma State’s rebounding margin against the Sooners on Saturday (45 to 28).
19 — Oklahoma scored 19 points off of 20 Oklahoma State turnovers. The Cowboys were more efficient in this area, however, scoring 22 points off of 15 Sooner turnovers.
23 — Bench points by the Oklahoma reserves in the game, including 10 each by Kur Kuath and Elijah Harkless.
26 — Free-throw attempts by Oklahoma State in the game, and the Cowboys cashed in on 23 of them.
44 — Minutes played, out of 45 minutes total, by OSU’s Cade Cunningham. With 40 points, on 21 field-goal attempts and 13 of 14 from the free-throw line, he averaged a little under a point a minute.
45 — Combined points by De’Vion Harmon (23) and Austin Reaves (22), just five more that Cunningham’s point total for the game.