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Oklahoma Closes Regular Season With Major Setback

The Sooners were the No. 16 overall seed and could have hosted two NCAA Tournament games, but a home loss to the Jayhawks likely changes that.
John E. Hoover|
Oklahoma Closes Regular Season With Major Setback
Oklahoma Closes Regular Season With Major Setback

Saturday was a major opportunity for Oklahoma — and likely became an opportunity lost.

The No. 19-ranked Sooners lost 73-67 at home to Kansas, meaning the No. 16 overall seed they held earlier in the week now likely belongs to someone else.

The top 16 seeds host first- and second-round games of the NCAA Tournament, and the Sooners could have had two home games for the Big Dance.

Scoring leader and All-Big 12 forward Madi Williams scored just eight points on 4-of-17 shooting, including an 0-for-6 showing from the perimeter. Taylor Roberson scored 14 on 2-of-9 shooting from 3-point range. Skylar Vann led OU with 17 points and was dialed in from the outside, making 4-of-7 treys.

The game featured seven ties and 13 lead changes, but the Sooners made just one of their final seven field goal attempts.

OU (23-7, 12-6 Big 12 Conference) trailed by 13 in the second half and by nine early in the fourth quarter, but tied it at 62 on a transition 3-pointer by Kelbie Washington, then Williams put the Sooners in front 64-62 on a layup with 2:37 to play.

But Kansas (20-8, 11-7) scored the next nine points and outscored the Sooners 11-3 down the stretch.

Kennady Tucker hit a 3 with 44 seconds left to cut the Jayhawks’ lead to 70-67, and the Sooners got a defensive stop. But Robertson missed a game-tying 3 with eight seconds left and Kansas added three free throws in the final five seconds for the final margin.

For the game, the Sooners shot just 32 percent from the floor (25-of-79) and 28 percent from the perimeter (11-of-40), while Kansas shot just 3-of-19 from 3-point range (16 percent) but 25-of-51 from inside the circle and outscored OU 46-26 in the paint.

Aniya Thomas led KU with 19 points while Taiyanna Jackson scored 18.

OU beat Kansas 82-68 on Jan. 8, and the rubber match takes place next week in the second round of the Big 12 Tournament. OU is the 4-seed and plays 5-seed KU next Friday in an 11 a.m. game at Municipal Auditorium in downtown Kansas City. That game will be televised on ESPNU.

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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