OU Basketball: Oklahoma-Arizona

Fears scored 24 points on 7-of-17 shooting with five assists and five rebounds, while Moore scored 24 on 7-of-15 shooting with seven rebounds. Fears and Moore combined to shoot 16-of-17 from the free throw line.

The Sooners suffered turnover problems in Wednesday’s tense first-round win over Providence, and they were back at it again on Thursday, committing 17 turnovers that allowed the Wildcats to stick around.

Fears drained a long 3-pointer with 13:18 left to stretch the Sooners’ lead to 51-44, and then dropped in a pull-up jump shot to make it 53-44.

Arizona scored back-to-back transition buckets, however, and then induced Glenn Taylor into a charge as the Sooners led 53-48 with 11:47 on the clock, and came out of the media timeout with a layup by Caleb Love to cut it 53-50.

Sam Godwin’s offensive rebound and kickoff to Duke Miles led to another Oklahoma 3, and Jalen Moore and Taylor connected on back-to-back 3s to put the Sooners up 62-55 with 9:17 left.

Moore then converted a long, fast-break pass from Taylor into a bucket and free throw to push OU to a 65-55 lead at the 8:55 mark.

Then Luke Northweather’s straightaway 3 with 8:18 put the Sooners up 11, 68-57.

Oklahoma’s lead was still 10 with 7:09 before the Wildcats scored back-to-back buckets to cut it 6.

That’s when Miles took a swing pass from Kobe Elvis and drained another 3 for a 72-63 lead, and Moore turned a quick baseline drive into an easy layup that gave OU a 64-65 lead with 4:58 to go.

A big-time rebound in traffic by Northweather led to a runout by Taylor, who raced downcourt and drew a goaltending call for a 76-65 lead with 4:04 showing.

Arizona cut it to seven, 76-69, at the final media timeout with 3:23 to go.

Miles then took the shot clock all the way down before bouncing a drive off the rim and in for a 78-69 lead at the 2:55 mark.

The Wildcats trapped Taylor for a turnover, which resulted in a layup by Jaden Bradley that cut it 78-71, and a shot clock violation by the Sooners led to another bucket by Trey Townsend that made it 78-73.

Oklahoma had two possessions thanks to a quick missed 3 by Taylor and a Northweather offensive board, but the Sooners triggers quickly again.

That led to two free throws by Bradley with 1:14 left that cut OU’s lead to 78-75.

Fears missed a turnaround jumper with 47 seconds left, setting up Arizona’s last gasp that featured some strong low-post defense by the Sooners, including a big block by Northweather.

Miles finished with 11 points on 4-of-5 shooting, and Northweather had 10 points, seven rebounds and two blocks.