Buddy Hield’s 3-pointer from the wing with 1.3 seconds remaining lifted No. 3 Oklahoma to a 63-60 victory over No. 24 Texas on Monday night.
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The Sooners’ national player of the year candidate added to his résumé with 27 points in front of 10,014 at Lloyd Noble Center and a national audience on ESPN. As the players ran into the tunnels, ESPN flashed a graphic indicating it was the Sooners’ lowest scoring half of the season-and their previous low was 31.
After holding the top spot in the polls for all of two weeks, OU men’s basketball has fallen to No. 3 in both the AP and Coaches polls that were released on Monday afternoon.
The Longhorns have dropped three straight at Oklahoma by a combined 20 points, but won 67-59 at then-No. They erected a 10-point lead early and led by nine at halftime. For most of the game, we did a really good job on him, considering how good a player he is.
“It is what it is”, Taylor said.
The Big 12’s leading scorer, Buddy Hield, scored 21 of his 27 game-high points in the second half, including the game-winning three-point basket with two seconds remaining in regulation. But he put up a strong 13 point performance in the first half.
Hield then got to the line four times in the final two minutes and ended up scoring the final 12 points for Oklahoma. He went 10 for 11 at the stripe and the Sooners were 14 for 18.
But for the first half, Texas played Hield as well as they possibly could have. Pretty much every single team in the country has gone through a rough patch at some point in this season, and that inevitability was finally catching up with the Sooners.
Oklahoma got some theatrics and heroics from Hield, but his supporting cast gets a grade of D-plus, at best. “Luckily, we were playing good defense and working together”. “We are confident as a team right now, but we are not satisfied and we are not going to ease up”. He scored 13 points, but was shut out over the final 25.
Isaiah Cousins added 17 points for the Sooners (20-3, 8-3 Big 12 Conference), who trailed for most of the game.
Oklahoma hosts No. 7 Kansas on Saturday.
This marks the first time that the Sooners have fallen from the top spot since January 18.
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“For a team in the Big 12, when you win a game, you get three or four days to feel better than when you lose a game”, Kruger said. “It helps the mood, it helps the climate”.
