By Wendell Barnhouse
Big12Sports.com Correspondent
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Lon Kruger’s rebuild of the Oklahoma program has included a number of positives. But in his first three seasons, the Sooners didn’t win a post-season game. They were 0-3 in the Phillips 66 Big 12 Men’s Championship and 0-2 in NCAA Tournament play.
OU erased the first goose egg Thursday night. The third-seeded Sooners overcame an ice-cold first half to complete a three-game Bedlam sweep of Oklahoma State, posting a 64-49 victory in the last quarterfinal of the day.
Oklahoma (22-9) will now take on No. 2 seed Iowa State while top-seeded Kansas will face No. 4 seed Baylor in Friday’s semifinals. It’s the fourth time and the first since 2010 that the top four seeds advanced.
Big 12 player of the year Buddy Hield ignited a second-half surge for the Sooners. OU missed 23 of 30 shots (23.3 percent) in the first 20 minutes and the Cowboys jumped to a 32-23 lead in the first two minutes after the break.
But a 16-3 run, with Hield scoring 10, turned the momentum in Oklahoma’s favor.
“My teammates found me in areas where I'm comfortable scoring the ball,” Hield said. “I was able to attack the basket, get to the free throw line and that helped me find a rhythm.”
Oklahoma used full-court pressure in the second half that helped get the juices flowing. During the Sooners’ spurt, the Cowboys had five turnovers on 10 possessions.
“We were much more active defensively the second half, created some offense from defense, pushed the ball a lot more aggressively and made for plays for each over,” Kruger said.
“We made some shots first half,” Oklahoma State coach Travis Ford said. “The second half we had a lot of good looks and they just didn't go if in. When you are not making those shots, you better come up with a ridiculous defensively effort.”
Oklahoma State’s Le’Bryan Nash scored a season-high 27 and added 12 rebounds. His teammates were 9-of-35 from the field. Second-leading scorer Phil Forte missed 9-of-10 shots and was 0-of-7 from 3-point range.
’I knew what was on the line for our team and I wanted to go out there and play my hardest and try to play to win, try to make as many positive plays as I could,” Nash said.
Nash followed his own missed layup and scored with 9:15 remaining to make it 43-all but the gas tank needle was on “E” and the Cowboys’ car was leaking oil. A 15-3 run by Oklahoma put it away for good.
The Cowboys (18-13) hoped to burnish their NCAA Tournament resume but instead lost for the sixth time in their last seven games. Ford, though, believes that his team’s complete body of work will earn an at-large bid.
“Our numbers speak for themselves,” he said. “Everything that the Committee looks at, we put that work in. We put that work in, the numbers speak for themselves.”