Oklahoma returned to the floor on Saturday for the first time in a week and just the third time in 19 days when they did battle with Iowa State in Ames.
Although they defeated the Cyclones in their first meeting two weeks ago and Iowa State was still searching for their first Big 12 win of the year, the Sooners were trying to conquer some demons at Hilton Coliseum. Entering Saturday, the last time Oklahoma won in Ames was all the way back in January of 2011 – prior to Lon Kruger becoming the head coach of the program.
But, while it looked a little dicey for a brief moment in the second half, the Sooners ended the streak and picked up the road win. Austin Reaves said after the game he was unaware of the losing streak until it was mentioned in practice during the week, but that he is very happy to get Kruger his first win in that building.
“It is really nice to get a win up here for Coach Krug,” Reaves said “He’s an amazing coach and this is big for him.”
Oklahoma came out very quickly in the early going building up a 21-point first half lead, but the Cyclones kept scratching and clawing their way back all the way to the point of briefly taking the lead with around 11 minutes to go. But, the Sooners responded quickly and didn’t relent the lead again.
“It was a good response in terms of losing the lead and then widening it right back out,” Kruger said. “Not that we want to get ourselves in that position any more than we have to, but I thought guys maintained their poise.”
“It’s a hard thing to do when a team got literally all the momentum, ,” Reaves said on turning things around after the big lead slipped away. “When you can really call timeout, just huddle up and just get back to the game plan and get focus back – it’s big.”
The hot start was an especially welcome sight given the layoff Oklahoma was forced to deal with after playing only once since the last time these two teams met a couple of weeks ago. Keeping up the momentum they had established before the series of postponements posed a significant test that the team largely passed.
“It’s a big challenge whenever games are postponed and and you’re preparing to play Texas on Tuesday, and then Wednesday, and then all of a sudden we put that preparation aside and started preparation for Iowa State,” Kruger said. “The guys handled it well, they were really anxious to play.”
Reaves was once again the one leading the way as he put up 20 points including getting himself to the line to knock down eight free throws. As he very often does, he was the driving force in putting things away late.
“He especially I thought got us off to a really good start,” Kruger said of Reaves. “I thought the did a good job of converting and distributing and getting others involved to open the ballgame. And then when the game was on the line, he went to the line and made free throws. He’s had a lot of good ballgames, and we needed another good one out of him today.”
The win moved the Sooners to 14-5 on the season and 9-4 in Big 12 play with another road trip against a struggling opponent next up in a trip to Manhattan to take on Kansas State on Tuesday night.
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