No. 15 Oklahoma is out to solve its Big 12 road woes Saturday in a visit to Cincinnati.
The Sooners (14-3, 2-2 Big 12) snapped a two-game skid Wednesday with a 77-63 home victory over West Virginia.
After dropping conference road games at TCU and Kansas last week, Jalon Moore stepped up with a team-high 16 points for the Sooners. Oklahoma shot a blazing 63.6 percent from the field in the second half to pull away from West Virginia and get back to .500 in the Big 12.
“We needed to win to stop the bleeding,” Oklahoma coach Porter Moser said. “It’s huge. You’ve got to take one at a time. You’ve got to (lock) in, got to win it, put it in the bank and go back the next night. Every night, this is going to be insane watching these standings.”
Javian McCollum and Rivaldo Soares scored 13 apiece while Otega Oweh added 12 points, 10 rebounds and five steals.
Oklahoma trailed 18-12 in the early going before an 8-0 run to take the lead. The Sooners led 29-25 at halftime.
“I think the message was just keep guarding,” Moore said. “I mean, our shots are going to fall, our offense is going to come.”
The Bearcats (13-4, 2-2) are coming off their most emotional win of the season, an 81-77 come-from-behind victory in overtime against No. 19 TCU.
John Newman III scored 20 points, including seven in overtime, while Day Day Thomas had a career-best 21 points to lead the Bearcats to their second win over a ranked Big 12 opponent this season.
Dan Skillings Jr. added 13 points while Viktor Lakhin chipped in with 11 as the Bearcats earned their first home Big 12 win, which was celebrated by students rushing the court after the final buzzer.
Cincinnati trailed by nine with 10 minutes remaining in regulation and by six with just over five minutes to go but rallied to tie the game, forcing overtime when TCU missed the front end of a 1-and-1 free throw opportunity.
Cincinnati was on the verge of dropping its third straight one-possession game in Big 12 play before the late rally.
“Well, I’m obviously more pleased with this result in the last two games and am really proud of our resilience,” said Cincinnati coach Wes Miller, who watched his team fall behind 26-16 in the first five minutes.
After TCU guard Jameer Nelson Jr. made a runner with 49 seconds left, Skillings made driving a layup with 20 seconds left to put Cincinnati back up for good 79-77. Thomas converted a pair of free throws to ice the game with five seconds remaining.
“Just trying to continue to stay in (the) fight and find a way,” Miller said. “That was the real positive. We’ve lost the last two games by one possession. Guys had chances to make the plays to win it, plays that you can expect to convert whether it’s free throws or layups.”
Cincinnati won Tuesday night despite shooting 11-for-21 (52.4 percent) from the free-throw line, missing 10 layups, committing 15 turnovers and missing nine of its first 12 shots from beyond the arc.
–Field Level Media