By Wendell Barnhouse
Big12Sports.com Correspondent
NORMAN, Okla. – There are some college basketball voices who are saying the sport has fallen from the ugly tree and hit every branch on its descent. But beauty can be in the eye of the beholder.
Two ranked Big 12 teams – gee, we’re hearing a lot of that, aren’t we – hooked up in a Big Monday battle in the Lloyd Noble Center. The passing was often pinpoint and the shooting frequently skillful. No. 14 Iowa State and No. 17 Oklahoma displayed offensive flow and plenty of scoring.
In the end, the Sooners were more artistic. Oklahoma won its fifth in a row with a 94-83 victory. The result reshuffled the standings. OU (17-7, 8-4) has nudged ahead of the Cyclones and are now in second place. First-place Kansas has a two-game lead in the loss column.
“We’ve got a lot of momentum right now,” said TaShawn Thomas, who scored a game-high 22 with 11 rebounds, five assists and three blocks.
“The statement is that we’re for real,” said Oklahoma’s Buddy Hield, who came into the game as the Big 12’s leading scorer and finished with 17. “The Big 12 is tough and winning a game like this shows that Oklahoma is no joke.”
Iowa State (17-6, 7-4) made nine of its first 12 3-pointers. As the Cyclones built a 10-point lead over the first 15 minutes, they exhibited extreme team ball. They made five consecutive baskets that all came via assists; three were 3-pointers, one was a dunk and one was a layup.
“I think we got caught up in basket trading,” Iowa State guard Naz Long said. “That caught up to us.”
The Sooners didn’t catch up until the end of the first half but they stayed in the game thanks to offensive rebounding. Ryan Spangler joined Thomas with a double double, 14 points and 12 rebounds. They helped OU grab 10 offensive rebounds converted into 12 points in the first half.
Over the last five minutes of the first half, Oklahoma grabbed momentum it would not relinquish. After Iowa State went up 42-32 by making seven of nine shots, the Sooners finally established a defensive beach head. The Cyclones’ last 11 possessions produced just four points while the Sooners posted 14 to forge a 46-all halftime score.
“The key point was the last five minutes of the first half when they took the momentum into the locker room,” Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg said. “It just kind of snowballed from there. I didn't think our urgency was the same coming out of the gate in the second half as it was in the first."
The snowball became an avalanche as the Sooners’ offense gained a rhythm Iowa State could not disrupt. Eight minutes into the second half, the Cyclones trailed just 63-58 but OU was in the midst of scoring on 20 of 27 possessions going back to the end of the first half.
Thomas had two assists (both on 3-pointers) and Isaiah Cousins scored seven points as OU made nine of 10 shots. When Cousins’ 3-pointer tickled the twine with 6:48 remaining, Oklahoma’s lead was 81-64.
“I thought the decisions with the ball were very good,” said Sooners coach Lon Kruger, whose team shot 57.6 percent in the second half. “I thought we shared the ball, we got it out of our hands quickly to one another, big guys when they caught it inside made good decisions in kicking it out, took care of it.
“Always the goal is to get a good shot on each possession. When you only turn it over seven times in a 94-point game that’s a pretty good percentage of good shots.”
One statistic illustrated how the game flipped first half to second half. The Cyclones finished with 12 assists; nine came in the first half.
And Oklahoma scored a season high while only shooting six free throws. It was the most points Oklahoma has scored against a ranked team since February 5th, 1994 (a 104-94 loss to No. 20 Missouri).
“We like playing fast but watching them on film … they played faster,” Hield said. “We adjusted to that tempo. We can play like that.”
“I thought I was back in New York City there,” Cousins said. “The game was fast and it was fun.”