Porter Moser credits play of Bijan Cortes in loss to Iowa State

Although Caleb Grill had a big day for Iowa State, Oklahoma managed to keep pace with the Cyclones late in the game before falling 63-60 Wednesday night. Bijan Cortes was a big part of that effort from the Sooners, and Porter Moser credited his performance afterward.

Cortes had 10 points, four rebounds and three assists in 28 minutes of action off the bench, and Moser said he did a good job of cutting through Iowa State’s offense. He helped Oklahoma play fast — as Moser likes to do — and that’s why the Sooners headman gave him credit in the postgame press conference.

“[Cortes] can see out of their traps,” Moser said. “And he got it out of their traps. … I thought he played north-south with a great pace. I thought him and [Milos Uzan] got the ball out of the traps, got the ball moving. … I thought Bijan gave us great pace to the game.”

However, it didn’t necessarily translate on defense, which is why Grill went 5-for-9 from three-point territory en route to a 20-point performance.

“I can look back at like four threes that were really open and … a good layup that we missed,” Moser said. “We didn’t guard to start the game. I thought we lost Grill, it was part of the game plan. He hunts threes and he did it, we lost him twice, fouled in him once, he got five threes and he got fouled on a three. He was a key to the game and we didn’t get that done. I thought Grill got loose too much.”

With the loss, Oklahoma fell to 9-5 overall and 0-2 in Big 12 play in Moser’s second season at the helm. The Sooners are now preparing for another tough opponent in Texas Tech on the road Jan. 7 at 7 p.m. ET.