Oklahoma basketball: Sooners grab huge road win over UCF

Umoja Gibson scored 13 points and Elijah Harkless hit a game-winning shot with 20 seconds to go in a 65-62 Oklahoma basketball road victory over Central Florida on Saturday.

The Sooners improved to 6-1 on the season in handing UCF its first loss after four wins to open the 2021-22 campaign.

The game was close throughout the opening half. Oklahoma led for all but four and a half minutes in the first 20 minutes, but never by more than six points. The Sooner took a 28-24 advantage to the locker room at the break. The contest remained fairly close through the first 10 minutes of the second half before a three-ball by Gibson at the 8:44 mark opened up a 10-point lead for the Sooners.

The largest lead by Central Florida was four points just over seven minutes into the game.

Oklahoma led 63-54 with a little over three minutes remaining in the game. but UCF went on an 8-0 run to pull within a single point, 63-62 on a three-point shot by the Knights’ Darin Green Jr., his fifth of the game.

Harkless made a short jump shot on the ensuing Oklahoma possession to seal the win.

Oklahoma shot 55 percent (24 of 44) from the field for the game, but also committed a season high 19 turnovers. Jordan Goldwire, a graduate transfer from Duke, and Ethan Chargois, who transferred to OU from SMU, both contributed 12 points for the Sooners.

Six Oklahoma players accounted for 63 of OU’s 65 points. The Sooners were just 6 of 17 from behind the three-point line.

The Sooners’ next game is against Florida at home at the Lloyd Noble Center next Wednesday.