Oklahoma basketball: Jayhawks storm Norman and the Sooners
By Chip Rouse
Once again — OUch! — the final five minutes of a half — you pick it, it doesn’t matter which one — has become a disaster of the men’s Oklahoma team.
Oklahoma was in this game for about 13 minutes, before Kansas stepped on the gas, taking advantage of a tsunami of Sooner turnovers and a share-the-wealth offensive attack on the way to a 78-53 win and a sweep of the regular-season series with OU.
It was Oklahoma’s seventh straight conference loss and fourth in a row since leveling Alabama, then the No. 2 team in the country, by 24 points.
The Sooners jumped out quickly to a 7-0 lead over No. 8 Kansas and led 20-19 with five and a half minutes left in the first half. From that point to the end of the first half, the bottom completely fell out for Oklahoma. The Jayhawks outscored the Sooners 16-2 to close out the opening half and take a 35-22 advantage into the intermission.
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Four Kansas starters scored in double figures and a fourth, freshman Grady Dick, might have joined that party had he played a couple of more minutes than he did. KU’s Jalen Wilson, the Big 12’s leading scorer, finished with a game-high 18 points.
The Sooners had three players in double digits, led by 14 points from Jalen Hill. Grant Sherfield contributed 10 but was two of eight from three-point range.
An aggressive Kansas defense held Oklahoma, which ranks second in the Big 12 in field-goal percentage to 36-percent shooting for the game, nearly 10 percent below the Sooners’ season average. Meanwhile Kansas shot 55 percent for the game.
The telling statistic in the game was in the turnover department. Oklahoma committed a season-high 24 turnovers, 13 of which came in the opening half. And here’s the killer: Kansas converted the Sooner miscues into 24 points. A number of those Sooner turnovers weren’t because of bad passes but rather OU dribbling drives into the paint and in traffic.
The Jayhawks also outscored the Sooners 50-28 in the paint, a reflection of the much smaller Oklahoma lineup and the absence of OU rim protectors.
The 23-point defeat to the Jayhawks was the Sooners’ sixth double-digit loss in its last seven games. Oklahoma led for nearly the first 15 minutes of the game, but couldn’t hold off Kansas after that
Next up for the OU men is a home game against visiting Kansas State on Tuesday. It will be the first meeting of the season between the Sooners and 12th-ranked K-State.