Shorthanded, even a hot start wasn’t enough to spark the Oklahoma Sooners to a win on the road.
Playing their first game without Elijah Harkless , the Sooners fell 75-54 in Ames to the Iowa State Cyclones on Saturday afternoon.
With the loss, Oklahoma stayed firmly on the NCAA Tournament bubble as the Sooners dropped to 14-13 overall on the season and 4-10 in Big 12 play. The Cyclones needed the win just as much as OU, as ISU moved to 18-9 and 5-9 on the year with the win.
Jacob Groves slid back into the starting lineup in place of Harkless, and immediately helped sparked the OU offense. Groves hit a quick pair of 3-pointers to help the Sooners storm out to an 8-0 lead, but that was the lone bright spot in a long first half.
From there, the Cyclones outscored OU 40-17 over the remainder of the first half, taking a 40-25 advantage into the locker room at halftime.
OU’s turnover problems again popped back up in Ames, as the Sooners turned the ball over nine times in the first half which led to 17 Iowa State points off of the turnovers.
As the offense struggled to hold on to the basketball, Oklahoma’s defense also suffered.
In the first meeting between the teams, Iowa State hit plenty of contested shots to help build an early lead, and Iowa State was again efficient from the field on Saturday. Unfortunately for the Sooners, the defensive intensity took a dip in the absence of Harkless, and OU allowed the Cyclones to knock down 67 percent of their shot attempts for the contest.
But just when the two teams met back in January, the Sooners would stage a second half charge.
Oklahoma did a good job of feeding the ball to Jalen Hill early in the second half, and the OU forward was able to capitalize, helping spur a 12-2 run early in the second half to cut the deficit to six points.
Unfortunately for Porter Moser and his team, five points would be as close as OU could cut the deficit, as Izaiah Brockington began to hit tough shots to extend the Cyclone lead back near double digits.
Brockington finished with a game-high 22 points, including knocking down 10-of-13 attempts from the field to fuel the Iowa State scoring outburst.
A late 15-0 Iowa State run buried the Sooners for good, as Oklahoma will have to regroup ahead of Tuesday’s trip to Lubbock to play the No. 11-ranked Texas Tech Red Raiders.
Hill, Jordan Goldwire and Hill were the only Sooners to finish scoring in double-digits, with Goldwire and Hill both scoring 15 points, and Groves adding another 11 points in the loss.
Tip-off between the Red Raiders and the Sooners on Tuesday night is scheduled for 7 p.m., and the game will be broadcast on ESPN+.
Want to join the discussion? Click here to become a member of the AllSooners message board community today!
Sign up for your premium membership to AllSooners.com today, and get access to the entire Fan Nation premium network!
Follow AllSooners on Twitter to stay up to date on all the latest OU news.
More must-reads: