Oklahoma basketball: No. 1 Zags too tough for depleted Sooners

Oklahoma basketball stood strong for a short while against the best team in college basketball this season, but then Goliath woke up and took control.

The Sooners were firing on all cylinders early, taking a 12-4 lead right out of the gate, and led top-ranked Gonzaga 21-19 eight minutes into the game. But the Zags, the No. 1 overall seed in this year’s NCAA Men’s Tournament, just have two many weapons and too much talent, and it was just a matter of time before Gonzaga took command of the game.

There is a good reason Gonzaga is undefeated and the top seed in this year’s tournament, and the Zags demonstrated that in taking the Sooners best punch early before pulling away over the final 10 minutes of the first half.

After OU went up 21-19 on a layup by Austin Reaves, Gonzaga outscored the Sooners 27-15 the remainder of the first half to take a 46-34 advantage at the break.

Oklahoma scored the first points of the second half to cut the Gonzaga lead to 10 at 46-36, but the Bulldogs went on an 18-11 run over a six-minute stretch to expand to the lead to 63-44, their largest advantage of the game.

Behind the second-half shooting of Reaves and senior guard Alondes Williams, the Sooners continued to scrap and fight and actually cut the deficit to just nine points, 79-70 with 2:09 remaining in the game. But the Zags closed it out on an 8-1 run to finish off an 87-71 victory to advance to the round of 16 next weekend.

Reaves led the Sooners with 27 points and had help on the offensive end with 11 by Jalen Hill and 15 off the bench by Williams.

Brady Manek, who scored 19 in the opening-round win over Missouri, hit the opening bucket of the game to give OU a quick 3-0 lead, but failed to score the remainder of the game. He did grab five rebounds, however, and blocked a shot.

Oklahoma played one of its best games of the season, and still fell 16 short

Oklahoma played one of its best games of the season, both on offensive and defensively, against the premier team in college basketball this season. The Sooners played hard and with great pride from beginning to end, which hasn’t always been the case this season, but even with that, the talent disparity was readily apparent.

Gonzaga seemed able to get a basket, both inside and from the perimeter, any time in needed it. Six-foot, 10-inch sophomore forward Drew Timme was virtually unstoppable inside, scoring a career-high 30 points on 9 of 12 shooting and added 12 free throws in 14 attempts. Timme also collected 13 rebounds, six of them on the offensive end.

Freshman sensation Jalen Suggs, arguably one of the top three players in the country, also made some big shots for the Zags, finishing with 16 for the game, and the lone starting senior, Corey Kispert, joined in with another 16 points, including four three-point daggers from beyond the arc.

The Sooners actually shot slightly better than Gonzaga, the country’s best shooting team. OU shot 50 percent for the game to 49.1 for Gonzaga. Where the Zags won this game was at the free-throw line. Gonzaga shot 26 free throws, most of them in the second half, and made 23 of them. Oklahoma had just 12 free-throw attempts the entire game and made good on eight of them.

The one thing Oklahoma needed to avoid if it was going to have any chance to win this game and pull off what would have been the upset of the year in college basketball, was get into an up-tempo, transition game with the Zags.

Some believed that the Sooners best strategy should have been to slow down the pace and limit the number of possession and scoring opportunities for Gonzaga. But the Zags came out wanting to play fast. Oklahoma came out firing, and with five of their first seven shots going in, including a couple of three-pointers, the Sooners were able to foil Gonzaga’s game plan early.

But by speeding Oklahoma up on the offensive end with their defensive switching and ball pressure, the Zags forced the Sooners into nine turnovers in the first half, which eliminated OU scoring opportunities and led to transition baskets by Gonzaga at the other end.

De’Vion Harmon might have helped, but likely wouldn’t have been enough

There’s little question that the Sooners missed not having sophomore starting guard De’Vion Harmon, the team’s second leading scorer. Harmon missed both of OU’s NCAA Tournament games after testing positive for COVID-19 upon the team’s arrival in Indianapolis a week ago. His 12-point scoring average certainly would have helped, but was actually offset by Alondes Williams’ 15 points.

The 87-71 loss to Gonzaga ends Oklahoma’s season with a 16-11 record.

Even though they end the season on a losing note, the Sooners can feel very good about the way they played, albeit in a losing effort, against the team that in all probability will be hoisting the championship trophy a fortnight from now.

It was a classic David vs. Goliath matchup. Only this time, Goliath was far too much for David to overcome and Oklahoma was unable to surprise the college basketball world.

What the Sooners were able to demonstrate, however, was they were a worthy opponent and weren’t about to go down without a fight.

With Oklahoma bowing out of this year’s NCAA Tournament, only two of the seven Big 12 teams that began the tournament remain in action: No. 1 seed Baylor, which advanced to the Sweet 16 with a 76-63 win over No. 8 Wisconsin on Sunday, and third-seeded Kansas, which plays No. 6 USC in a second-round matchup later Monday night.