National Basketball Association
Oklahoma 63, Texas 60
When: 9:00 PM ET, Monday, February 8, 2016
Where: Lloyd Noble Center, Norman, Oklahoma
Officials:
# Joe DeRosa, # Keith Kimble, # Mike Stuart
Attendance:
11547
By The Sports Xchange
NORMAN, Okla. -- Buddy Hield wasn't much of a factor for most of the first 36 minutes Saturday night.
Even so, Hield, Oklahoma's star guard and a leading candidate for national player of the year honors, took over at the end.
Hield hit a 3-pointer with 1.4 seconds left to cap a big comeback and lift No. 3 Oklahoma to a 63-60 win over No. 24 Texas at Lloyd Noble Center on Monday night.
Hield scored 12 of his game-high 27 points in the final 3:20 to keep the Sooners (20-3, 8-3 Big 12) in the thick of the conference race.
The Sooners, who led the game for just 49 seconds, are a half-game behind league-leading West Virginia.
On the final play, Hield caught the ball on the left wing.
"We'd been going to him at the top," Sooners coach Lon Kruger said. "He'd prefer to be on the left wing. Had had the option to attack and make a play or get to the rim for somebody else or do what he did. It was a tough play. It wasn't any special play. It was a special shot."
Hield was going to attack before seeing Texas forward Connor Lammert slide over to help with the drive.
Instead, he made a quick move right, then back to his left, giving him just enough space to hit the shot over Longhorns guard Kendal Yancy.
"It was just a tough shot," Hield said. "I'd been struggling all night trying to get a shot off. I finally made the last two, which is more important."
Hield finished with 27 points, hitting only seven of 18 from the floor, including three of 10 from behind the 3-point arc. However, he made 10 of 11 free throws.
"The thing is for him, the last shot was phenomenal, but for him, numbers-wise, it was another day at the office," Texas coach Shaka Smart said. "That's what's crazy is he does this every night, not necessarily the last shot, but that's just the way he's been playing."
Smart called Hield the country's best player.
Hield's final shot was set up by a big play on the other end of the floor in the closing seconds.
Longhorns guard Isaiah Taylor had a chance to be the hero, but driving to the basket inside of 20 seconds, he was called for an offensive foul on forward Dante Buford, giving the Sooners the ball back with a chance to take the final shot.
"It is what it is," Taylor said of the call. "The refs can't decide the game. We've got to do a better job down the stretch making plays."
Taylor led the Longhorns (16-8, 7-4) with 19 points. Yancy had 13 points, all in the first half.
Guard Isaiah Cousins added 17 points for Oklahoma, which was held to its lowest scoring output of the season.
"We got a few transition buckets in the second half that helped a little bit with the pace and the flow, but for the most part, both teams took away the other's offensive flow," Kruger said. "It became a contest of attacking off the dribble and making plays for each other. Nothing pretty about that, but just kind of throw the gloves down and forget about all the other stuff but just attack each other off the dribble."
Yancy came out firing for the Longhorns.
He hadn't scored more than seven points in any game all season, but he had eight in the game's first 3:30, hitting a pair of 3-pointers as Texas quickly built a 10-point lead. The Sooners finally took the lead back on Hield's free throws with 1:19 remaining.
NOTES: Each team shot 40 percent from the floor. ... G Buddy Hield passed Ryan Minor for sixth on Oklahoma's all-time scoring list. With his 27 points, Hield has 1,957 for his career and is 51 points behind Stacey King for fifth. ...Earlier in the day, Texas moved into the rankings for the first time in just more than a year. ... Oklahoma F Khadeem Lattin had two first-half fouls for the fourth consecutive game. ... In the second half, Lattin was called for a double technical after a Texas foul. Longhorns C Prince Ibeh was called for a technical. ... Oklahoma hosts No. 6 Kansas on Saturday in a rematch of a 109-106 triple-overtime win by the Jayhawks on Jan. 4. ... Texas plays at No. 14 Iowa State on Saturday.
Top Game Performances
Texas |
|
Oklahoma |
Isaiah Taylor 19 |
Scoring |
Buddy Hield 27 |
Javan Felix 5 |
Assists |
Isaiah Cousins 3 |
Prince Ibeh 11 |
Rebounds |
Ryan Spangler 10 |
Isaiah Taylor 4 |
Free Throws Made |
Buddy Hield 10 |
Kendal Yancy 3 |
Steals |
Buddy Hield 2 |
Kerwin Roach Jr. 1 |
Blocks |
Jamuni McNeace 1 |
Team Stats Summary
Team |
Points |
FG% |
3PM-3PA |
FTM-FTA |
Assists |
Rebounds |
Blocks |
Steals |
Turnovers |
Texas
|
60 |
40.0 |
6-23 |
6-10 |
8 |
34 |
1 |
8 |
9 |
Oklahoma
|
63 |
40.0 |
9-22 |
14-18 |
9 |
30 |
1 |
3 |
10 |