VCU Comeback Bid Falls Short, Sooners Advance to Sweet 16

After a first half that was mostly controlled by the Oklahoma Sooners, Virginia Commonwealth came back from a 14 point deficit and took a late second half lead. But after scoring just seven points in the first half, Buddy Hield scored 29 in the second half to push the Sooners past the Rams. His clutch performance in the second half was just enough for Oklahoma to win and advance to the Sweet 16 for the second year in a row.

Jordan Woodard and Isaiah Cousins played a big part in the Sooners win too, adding in a combined 32 points. Khadeem Lattin also had a solid game with eight points, five rebounds, and two blocks. Everyone in the Sooners starting five had at least six points, which is good news when you consider they had just three points off the bench. Akolda Manyang, who played 14 minutes in the first round, did not play today due to personal reasons. His minutes were taken up by Jamuni McNeace, who had one point and one rebound.

VCU's Melvin Johnson had 23 points and JeQuan Lewis had 22 points. Both players caused problems for the Sooners defense all day and kept the Rams in the game for all 40 minutes.

Oklahoma will play the winner of the Texas A&M-Northern Iowa game, which has yet to be played. The Sooners will either face their old conference foe, or the team that knocked out their arch rival Texas in the first round.

Texas A&M is a solid team with a great defense that no one wants to play, but Northern Iowa is the type of team that could really give Oklahoma match up problems. The winner of that Sweet 16 game will go to the Elite Eight and face likely either Duke or Oregon.