OU brings the effort but fails to execute at Iowa State
Want the good news for OU basketball? If it brings that same type of effort against No. 1 Houston on Saturday, it’s going to be fun in Norman.
Want the bad news? If the Sooners shoot like they did Wednesday, it won’t even matter. Nobody could get going offensively. Eventually, the fight was slowly drained away and No. 8 Iowa State earned the 58-45 home victory.
ISU has not lost at home this season. OU gave it a good tussle for about 18 minutes, and then the end of the first half spelled the end of the threat.
OU led 20-16 for what felt like forever. Then ISU got going and ended the half on a 9-0 run. It’s something we’ve seen a few times this season where the Sooners have failed to close out the first half in a strong way.
Once ISU got off to a great start in the second half, the writing was on the wall.
Game 28 Takeaways from the couch
*Guard Javian McCollum could not capitalize on his Bedlam heroics. He was scoreless for the first 30 minutes, far cry from the first matchup vs. ISU. Finished with four points.
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*Head coach Porter Moser mentioned how OU needed to make 3-pointers. The Sooners had 10 in the win in Norman vs. ISU. Not this time around. OU had zero in the first half and finished with three, just not good enough.
*You want a positive for the Sooners? Look at Luke Northweather. Back-to-back games of quality outings. He finished with seven points, six rebounds and two assists. That’s OK. As an absolute work in progress, that’s OK.
*Shooting told the story. OU did a great job limiting ISU but could never cash in. The Sooners shot just under 33 percent from the floor. ISU was just over 33 percent. Not a pretty one across the board. Nobody from OU scored in double figures and OU had 14 turnovers.
Up next
OK, you couldn’t shoot on the road. That’s fine. But now here comes the true No. 1. Houston earned another victory earlier this week and is in its first week as the top team in the country. It’s the return of Kelvin Sampson and everybody else from that staff to Norman. It should make for one memorable Saturday evening. OU is 19-9 overall and 7-8 in the Big 12.
