Oklahoma basketball: Second-half storm surge wins it for Sooners

After a 27-27 wakeup call at halftime against Kansas City (University of Missouri-Kansas City), the men’s Oklahoma basketball team came alive in the second half and pulled away for a 75-53 home win at Lloyd Noble Center on Tuesday night.

The Sooners broke up the halftime deadlock with an 18-4 run to start the second half. Grant Sherfield, OU’s leading scorer on the season, scored 22 of his game high 24 points over the second 20 minutes. His 24-point total, which included sinking six of seven from three-point range, was one shy of his season high.

Three other Sooners scored in double figures. Tanner Groves and true freshman Milos Uzan contributed 11 points apiece, and Sam Godwin added 10 coming off the bench.

RayQwandis Mitchell wielded the hot hand for Kansas City in the opening half, scoring nine of the Kangaroos first 15 points and all but two of his team-high 18 points before halftime.

Oklahoma improved to 7-2 this season and will face No. 9 Arkansas on Saturday in Tulsa in the Crimson and Cardinal Classic.

Three points that help tell the story of the game:

• Oklahoma shot 57.8 percent for the game while holding Kansas City to 35.8-percent shooting. This was the fourth time in the last five game that the Sooners have shot better than 50 percent.
• OU was 1 of 7 from behind the 3-point line in the first half but improved to 6 of 10 on three balls in the second half.
• The Sooners scored 19 points off of 16 Kansas City turnovers. OU also had 17 fast-break points to just 3 by Kansas City