Shorthanded Oklahoma Survives Kansas State in Big 12 Opener

NORMAN — Oklahoma survived a late scare to open Big 12 play with a win.

Playing without leading scorer Tanner Groves and key reserves Jacob Groves and Bijan Cortes, the Sooners needed some late game heroics to stave off a Kansas State rally.

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Once again, senior Elijah Harkless answered the call, draining a contested jumper with 35 seconds left to give OU a two-point lead.

From there, four free throws from Umoja Gibson iced the game, seeing out a 71-69 Sooner victory inside the Lloyd Noble Center on Saturday night.

OU moved to 11-2 on the year with the win, moving to 1-0 in Big 12 play, and the Wildcats fell to 8-4 (0-1).

“It wasn’t pretty, but we found a way to win,” OU head coach Porter Moser said during his postgame Zoom press conference. “… We had a lot of guys who had to play a lot of minutes that they haven’t played before. To guard what Kansas State does with their movement, their slips, their flairs, they’re hard to guard… A lot of minutes because we’re playing short-handed but found a way to win.”

Roughly 45 minutes before the opening tip, Oklahoma announced the trio of absences due to health and safety protocols, forcing Moser into his first starting lineup shakeup of the season.

Moser turned to center Rick Issanza instead of Ethan Chargois to replace Tanner Groves in the starting lineup, a move he said was an effort to just get a few extra bench minutes to try and keep Chargois out of foul trouble.

“The thing with Ethan is we have to keep him on the court because he’s super foul-prone. That’s why I started Rick,” Moser said. “I was hoping to start two minutes at the beginning of the game.

“My thought process was ‘All right Rick, you’re 7-1. Let’s get the jump ball and go two minutes.’ I had Ethan sitting right there. I would save two minutes where he’s not getting a foul and then we didn’t get the jump ball. There that went.”

Once Chargois came into the game for Issanza, Oklahoma went on a quick 6-0 run to push the lead to eight, seizing early momentum behind their excellent first half defense.

OU built a 15-point lead at one point in the first half and headed into the locker room up 11 points. Harkless, Gibson, Jordan Goldwire and Jalen Hill all shared the scoring duties in the first half, each contributing seven points over the opening 20 minutes.

But in the second half, the Wildcat 3-point shooters came alive.

Led by Mark Smith’s 25-point performance, a career-high, Kansas State knocked down 9-of-16 attempt from behind the 3-point line in the second half to close the gap.

Unlike OU’s pair of losses against Utah State and Butler, the Sooner offense remained composed down the stretch, something Moser said will help propel his team throughout Big 12 play.

“To find a way to win that game was big for us because it’s going to be a grind in this league,” Moser said. “I think the biggest thing is coming back from Christmas, you know the fatigue is always going to be an issue in that first game. Then to know we’re going to be three (players) down.

“… I really feel this is a big one for confidence if we could find a way to pull it out, especially shorthanded.”

Harkless continued to be Oklahoma’s go-to scorer in crunch time, a role left vacant from last year’s Sooners by Austin Reaves.

The senior scored eight of his 21 points over the last five and a half minutes of the game, including the go-ahead bucket in the final minute.

“He just hit a tough, tough shot,” Moser said. “Just tough as nails. He’s hit big shots for us. I thought we did a lot of good things. They were exhausted.

“… We wanted the ball in his hands at the end. Man, what a shot he hit.”

Harkless said he’s never shied away from the spotlight in crunch time, but he is more comfortable in the role this year playing with his teammates’ confidence.

“It’s pretty comfortable,” Harkless said after the game. “My teammates believed in me, telling me to take those shots, having everybody in your corner. Just believe in your work, everything will take care of itself.”

Along with his team-leading scoring effort, Harkless added seven rebounds in his 35 minutes of action.

Gibson finished on Harkless’ heels, adding 19 points in the winning effort. Goldwire also finished with 11 points and both Hill and freshman C.J. Noland added 10 points to round out OU’s scoring on Saturday night.

Up next, the Sooners will hit the road to play the No. 1-ranked Baylor Bears. The contest on Tuesday night is scheduled to tip-off at 6 p.m. in Waco, and the game will be broadcast on ESPN2.

After the game, Moser said the team hopes to get Jacob Groves back out of protocols for the contest against the Bears, but the status of Tanner Groves and Cortes is still unknown.

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