The men’s Oklahoma basketball team opened the game at Iowa State on Saturday hitting its first three shots and racing out to a 10-5 lead, but then came one of those dreaded scoreless stretches that continue to plague this struggling Sooner group.
After jumping out to a 8-0 in the opening minutes, Oklahoma (14-13, 4-10) could not contain the Cyclones offensive attack after the initial barrage. Iowa State opened up a 15-point first-half advantage and held off an early Sooner rally in the second half before finishing off a decisive 75-54 victory that deals another near-fatal blow to Oklahoma’s NCAA Tournament hopes.
Iowa State took its first lead in the game, 12-10, at the 12:16 mark in the first half and outscored the Sooners 28-13 for the remainder of the first half, shooting 75 percent in the process, to open up a 40-25 advantage.
The Cyclones (18-9, 5-9) shot 67.3 percent for the game (33 of 49) and made 12 more field goals than the Sooners, who didn’t shoot badly but whose 48.8 percent field-goal percentage wasn’t enough to overcome Iowa State offensive efficiency.
Final pic.twitter.com/9BhYp36oi8
— Oklahoma Basketball (@OU_MBBall) February 19, 2022
Iowa State’s Izaiah Brockington led all scorers with 22 points (he had 20 in the first game with OU this season). Jalen Hill and Jordan Goldwire paced Oklahoma — playing without starting forward Elijah Harkless, who is out with a season-ending injury — with 15 points each.
With the win, Iowa State was able to split the regular-season series with the Sooners. Oklahoma won the first game in Norman by a score of 79-66.
It doesn’t get any easier for the teetering Sooners, who now must go to Texas Tech for a Tuesday night game against the 11th-ranked Red Raiders, who may go even higher in the rankings after defeating Texas 61-55 in Austin on Saturday.
Here are some of the notable numbers that tell the story of Iowa State’s beatdown on OU:
0 — OU’s Umoja Gibson, the Sooners’ three-point specialist, missed all four of his three-point attempts and scored just four points in the game.
1 — Oklahoma has won just one of its last 11 games at Iowa State’s Hilton Coliseum.
2 — Tanner Groves took just two shots in the game. He made both, one from three-point range, and finished with seven total points.
2 — Total points scored by the Oklahoma bench and that came on the final Sooner bucket in the game by Bijon Cortes with under 30 seconds to go. The Sooner reserves also committed six turnovers. By comparison, the Iowa State reserves scored 15 points.
9 — Half of Oklahoma’s 18 shots in the first half were three-point attempts, and the Sooners only made three of them.
11 — Jacob Groves, Tanner’s younger brother, replaced the injured Elijah Harkless and contributed 11 points, including three of five from long range.
16 — Turnovers in the game by the Sooners, nine of which came in the first half.
22 — Iowa State scored 22 points off of the 16 Oklahoma turnovers.