Just win. That’s the name of the game in a rivalry. It wasn’t pretty on Saturday night, but the Oklahoma Sooners came away with an important win over the Oklahoma State Cowboys in the first leg of Bedlam.
It may have started ugly, but the Sooners were up to the task to hold Oklahoma State to 30% shooting from the field and just 16% from three.
The Sooners rebounded from a rough first ten minutes to shoot 45.7% for the game and 39.1% from three. Sometimes it’s not about how you start but how you finish. And with the Sooners trailing late, they finished strong with a 9-0 run to take control and pull out the win.
The Sooners couldn’t afford to drop a game to last place Oklahoma State, especially with the slate of teams coming up. The Sooners will play four top 15 teams in their next five games, starting with No. 13 Baylor on Tuesday night. Then they’ll take on No. 4 Kansas at home before going to Stillwater for the second leg in Bedlam. After facing Oklahoma State again, the Sooners will play at No. 13 Iowa State and then host No. 5 Houston before finishing the season with Cincinnati and Texas.
Oklahoma’s likely done enough to make the NCAA tournament. They look like they’re heading toward a top-eight seed, but in order to stay in that projection, they had to beat Oklahoma State.
Here are the best photos from Oklahoma’s win in Bedlam.