Austin Reaves, De'Vion Harmon lift Oklahoma

Coming into the postseason on a four-game losing stream, what Oklahoma really needed Wednesday night in the Big 12 Tournament was a fast and efficient start.

Enter De’Vion Harmon.

The other thing OU needed, for a change, was a strong finish.

Enter Austin Reaves.

Oklahoma’s two best players rose up at different stages of the game and powered the seventh-seeded Sooners to a 79-73 victory over 10-seed Iowa State at T-Mobile Arena in Kansas City.

Harmon, the Sooners’ sophomore guard, made seven of his first nine shots, and Reaves heated up late as OU straightened things out and finally got back in the win column.

“It’s really big,” said OU coach Lon Kruger. “Those guys have done that for us consistently for us on the year. Austin and De’Vion have done a good job stepping up. We need them to score one every ballgame, and they’ve been pretty consistent in that way, but especially in critical times tonight. I thought those two guys did an excellent job.”

Harmon scored three buckets in the first half, including midrange jumpers on back-to-back possessions that built the Sooners’ early lead to 23-15.

“Yeah, that’s huge,” Kruger said. “Any time you can get some shots down early, kind of pumps your confidence, picks up everyone else’s confidence. You kind of play from the lead pretty much all the way, and that’s the result of getting off to a good start.”

Harmon really got going offensively early in the second half. He got loose to finish a fast break with a two-handed dunk for a 40-28 lead, his jumper at the 15:41 mark ended a brief Cyclones run and gave OU a 10-point lead, and his fast-break layup made it 46-32.

Harmon’s personal outburst ended with a 3-pointer from the left wing that gave the Sooners their biggest lead at 51-32 with 12:16 to play.

Then, as if according to a script written over and over during the past month, the Sooners’ 19-point lead dwindled to six points in the final minutes as OU nearly wilted again.

That’s when Reaves elevated his game.

When a Cyclones 3-pointer cut OU’s lead to 58-51, Reaves pulled up for a jumper that made it a nine-point game. And when another Cyclones 3 cut it 60-54, Reaves buried a 3 on the other end to extend it back to nine.

"Yeah, it was huge," Kruger said. "I recall the back-to-back possessions when he made the 2-pointer and then made the 3-pointer and then some others as well. Just some huge plays, and at a time when we needed to stem their run. He’s does that for us on many occasions, and he was great for us tonight."

After two Iowa State free throws, Reaves hit another deuce to make it 65-56 with 2:26 left.

In 91 seconds, Reaves poured in seven straight Sooner points.

“Big time shots. Big time shots,” Harmon said. “When me and him are in it like that … hitting shots is what we want, but us, me and him staying together, everybody kind of feeds off that.”

Fittingly, it was Harmon who all but put the game away with a breakaway dunk, giving the Sooners a 72-64 with 52 seconds left.

“And yet again,” Harmon said, “No. 12 hit big-time shots down the stretch in a tight ballgame and we got the win.”

Reaves, who made four free throws in the final 30 seconds, led all scorers with 21 points, and Harmon was next with 18. Reaves was 6-of-11 from the floor (2-of-3 from distance) while Harmon was 8-of-12 (1-of-2). They also combined for six assists and two steals.

It was the kind of performance OU needs from its two best players in the postseason, and just in time for Thursday’s 6:30 p.m. second-round against Kansas.

“We’ve gotta raise our level,” Kruger said. “We’ve got to play better, and we understand how tough that’s gonna be.”