Oklahoma basketball: Sooners catch fire in 2nd half to defeat No. 21 BYU 82-66

Men's Oklahoma basketball returned to it winning ways with an 82-66 home win over No, 21 BYU on Tuesday at the Lloyd Noble Center.

The game started out with a somber tribute to country music star Toby Keith, who passed away on Tuesday. Keith, who grew up in Moore, Oklahoma, was a huge fan and supporter of OU athletics.

Led by 20 points from Javian McCollum and 49 percent shooting as a team, the Sooners exploded for 48 points in the second half to pick up their 17th win of the season and improve to 5-5 in the Big 12.

BYU led for much of the first half, but a layup my OU's Milos Uzan tied the score at 34-34 at the halftime. There were four lead changes in the first seven minutes of the second half before the Sooners gradually began to pull away, A layup by Jalon Moore with 7:53 to go in the game put Oklahoma up by nine, 62-53.

This was the same spot Oklahoma found itself in 10 days ago when the Sooners blew a similar lead at home late in the game with Texas Tech. This time, however, OU outscored the Cougars 19-13 the rest of the way to secure the victory.

Four Oklahoma players scored in double digits. Besides McCollum, Uzan contributed 16, Rivaldo Soares 12 off the bench and Moore had 10. Fousseyni Traore led BYU with a game-high 21 points, and Dallin Hall added 17.

Seven different Sooner made three-pointers as OU went 9 of 26 from three-point range. BYU entered the contest as the nation leader in made three-pointers but managed just 8 of 26 against an Oklahoma defense that leads the Big 12 in defending the three-ball. Ther eight made three-pointers was the third fewest by BYU in 22 games this season,

Oklahoma remains home for the remainder of the week and will host Oklahoma State in Bedlam on Saturday.