 |
| |
|
 |
 |
 |
KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Ticker) -- Oklahoma made its case for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Hollis Price scored 14 of his 23 points in the second half as the fourth-ranked Sooners ended the 16-game winning streak of top-ranked Kansas with a 64-55 victory in the Big 12 Conference title game. Oklahoma (27-4) made a bid for a top seed by earning its second straight Big 12 tournament championship. However, it later was revealed that the Sooners would be a No. 2 seed in the West Region. "It's a great statement for our basketball program and the University of Oklahoma," Sooners coach Kelvin Sampson said. "This is a tremendous group of kids. They came in and bought into our system." Price, the tournament's Most Valuable Player, had consecutive baskets to give Oklahoma a 49-43 lead with just over eight minutes left. A basket by Kansas forward Drew Gooden cut the margin to 49-47 before Price drilled a long 3-pointer with 6:28 to play. "Hollis is too valuable for us just by his presence," Sampson said. "He's always a factor in the game. Hollis is our leader. He's our pulse." The Jayhawks (29-3) answered with a basket, but Price again came through from long range for a 55-49 advantage. Sooners center Jabahri Brown added a basket for an eight-point cushion with 4:15 left. The Sooners did it with defense, holding the nation's highest-scoring team to seven baskets in the first half while building a 29-19 lead. Kansas also committed 12 of its 20 turnovers in the opening 20 minutes. Oklahoma's suffocating defense was evident from the start as Aaron McGhee and Brown physically bodied up to Gooden and Nick Collison. Kansas had just seven points through the game's first 13 minutes. "We won the game with confidence, and we're going to go into the tournament with a lot of confidence," McGhee said. "We beat the No. 1 team in the nation and that's a great feat." "They're a physical team," Collison added. "It wasn't pretty out there. They bump you and we rushed things. We just didn't play well." The Jayhawks come out strong in the second half and finally got their offense untracked with a 9-2 run capped by Gooden's layup with 17:20 remaining. They drew even on a basket by freshman Keith Langford for a 39-39 tie with 11:33 left. McGhee made two free throws to put Oklahoma ahead for good at 43-41 and added an inside basket for a four-point cushion with just under nine minutes remaining. Price took over from that point, scoring the Sooners' next 10 points. "We just couldn't get over the hump," Kansas coach Roy Williams said. "You just have to execute and do the things you do." Quannas White scored 10 points and the Sooners battled to a 44-44 draw on the boards against Kansas' vaunted frontcourt. Brown and Ebi Ere each grabbed eight rebounds. Gooden finished with 22 points and 15 rebounds to lead Kansas, which has not won a Big 12 tournament title since 1999. Collison added 15 and 13 for the Jayhawks, who lost to Oklahoma in the semifinals last season. "It was a war out there," Gooden said. "We won the first meeting between the two teams and they won today." The Jayhawks shot a season-low 33 percent (19-of-57) and also were held to their lowest point total of the campaign. Their previous low came in a 74-67 victory over Oklahoma on January 19. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
