Oklahoma Basketball: Sooners cruise to 79-65 victory over Oral Roberts

The Oklahoma Sooners took care of business against the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles (3-4) on Wednesday night, cruising to a comfortable 79-65 victory. With the win, OU improves to 4-1 on the season.

Senior guard Austin Reaves led the way for the Sooners, dropping 18 points on five of nine shooting from the field and eight of nine makes from the stripe. In addition to his scoring output, the former Wichita State Shocker led Oklahoma with 10 rebounds and seven assists. Senior forward Brady Manek also had himself a strong night with 17 points. OU’s other main contributor was junior transfer Umoja Gibson, who came off the bench and was on fire from the jump. The former North Texas guard poured in all 14 of his points in the first half, including four makes from beyond the arc.

In the first half, Oklahoma methodically separated itself from ORU with a balanced blend of inside and outside scoring. The Golden Eagles played with high energy for the most part, but being just one day removed from playing their last game, the open looks simply weren’t falling. The Sooners led 40-22 going into the break.

Over the game’s last 20 minutes, Oral Roberts continued to play tough, and its offense found more of a rhythm in certain stretches, but ultimately, OU proved to be too deep and too locked-in defensively to make the second half all that interesting.

Up next, Oklahoma will look to tune things up once again when Houston Baptist (1-5) visits the Lloyd Noble Center on Saturday, Dec. 19. Tip-off for this game is scheduled for 4 p.m. CT and will be televised on FOX Sports Southwest.

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