Oklahoma Sooners Basketball: OU cruises to victory over Iowa State, 90-61

The Oklahoma Sooners held serve against the struggling Iowa State Cyclones (10-14, 3-8) on Wednesday night and simultaneously enacted a bit of revenge with a 90-61 beatdown inside the LNC. With the win, OU improves to 16-8 on the season and 6-5 in Big 12 play.

For the first time this season, six OU players scored double-figures in the same game, including all five Sooner starters. Leading the charge was senior forward Kristian Doolittle, who followed up his big outing last Saturday against WVU with another huge performance against ISU. The Edmond, Okla. native wrapped up his night with 20 points on 6/13 shooting, and added six rebounds, three assists and three steals.

While it was Doolittle who did the bulk of the heavy lifting for the majority of the night, it was junior forward Alondes Williams who broke the game open in the second half. He did all of his scoring damage over the final 20 minutes, culminating in 14 momentous points, one point shy of tying his OU career-high. Check out this thunderous slam that sent a message to Iowa State.

Sophomore guard Jamal Bieniemy got the night started with a straightaway three, and the Sooners quickly jumped out to an early 9-2 lead before the Cyclones found their stroke from beyond the arc to chip away and take a brief 18-17 advantage. From then on, momentum would swing one way or the other for both teams, but just when it appeared the game would be a one-point contest going into the break, junior guard Austin Reaves buried a deep three-pointer in the final seconds of the half to push OU up to a 40-36 lead.

Oklahoma raced out to a hot start in the second half behind a couple steals and well-executed fast-break plays from Doolittle and Williams. Including Reaves’ three to cap off the first, the Sooners left the Cyclones in their dust with a 9-0 run over a two minute span, and never looked back after that. Freshman point guard De’Vion Harmon came off the bench to keep the level of play optimal, pouring in 10 points and accounting for an assist. By the end of the night, OU’s depth and efficiency proved to be too much for an overmatched ISU bunch, resulting in the greatest deficit of the game which also happened to be the final score.

Coming into the night, Oklahoma was projected as a 9-seed in Joe Lunardi’s latest Bracketology update. This win was critical for the Sooners as far as not slipping from that spot, especially with back-to-back tests against two of the nation’s top three ranked teams in KU and Baylor on deck.

Speaking of which, up next, Oklahoma travels north to the Sunflower State to take on Bill Self and his No. 3 Kansas (21-3, 10-1) squad on Saturday, Feb. 15. The Jayhawks have won each of the last 18 meetings with the Sooners in Lawrence dating back to 1994, and most recently KU dominated OU earlier this season in Norman, 66-52. Tip-off is scheduled for 11 a.m. CT and can be watched on ESPN.

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