NORMAN — Oklahoma once again suffered another gut punch in the final minute of a Big 12 contest Wednesday night.
Hosting the No. 25-ranked Iowa State Cyclones, the Sooners were presented with plenty of opportunities to win the game late, but ultimately fell 63-60 at the Lloyd Noble Center.
Neither team led by more than five points in the entire second half, and the contest went down to the wire.
Freshman Milos Uzan drew the game level with 1:03 left on the clock.
With four seconds left on the shot clock, Uzan worked to his left, kissing a pull-up jumper off the glass to narrowly beat the buzzer and knot the contest up at 56-56.
Tamin Lipsey put the Cyclones (11-2 overall, 2-0 Big 12) back up by two with a quick bucket on the other end, but Bijan Cortes again pulled the game square for the Sooners with a runner after driving to his right.
On the other end, Lipsey drained a triple to put Iowa State up 61-58 with 33 seconds left, heaping the pressure back on Oklahoma (9-5, 0-2).
After a disjoint possession, Uzan was again left alone at the top of the arc, but he missed his attempt from deep.
OU forward Jalen Hill was there to tip the ball in, however, pulling the Sooner within a point with 16 seconds left.
On the ensuing inbounds play, Iowa State guard Caleb Grill clattered to the floor and spilled the ball out of bounds, giving OU 7.5 seconds to win the game.
But the Sooners flubbed their chance to get the ball in play as well.
Hill sealed his man in the lane, but Cortes was unable to loft the ball over the top and into Hill’s hands to lay the ball in and take the lead.
Osun Osunniyi sunk a pair of free throws to ice the game for the Cyclones with five seconds left, as Tanner Groves’ desperation 3-pointer at the buzzer landed off the mark.
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The gut-wrenching loss was setup by a massive first half comeback
Oklahoma’s night looked done a quick eight and a half minutes into Wednesday night’s Big 12 battle.
Guard Grant Sherfield checked out of the game with a pair of fouls, and the No. 25-ranked Iowa State Cyclones’ hot start had the visitors up 19-5.
But underclassmen guards Bijan Cortes, C.J. Noland and Uzan came alive to lead a ferocious comeback.
The trio combined to score 13 points to help the Sooners storm on a 20-0 run, erasing an 18-point deficit to go into halftime tied 29-29.
Out of the intermission, Oklahoma allowed Iowa State to build a quick five-point lead, meaning the Sooners had to play catch up virtually the entire half.
Jalen Hill and Groves carried most of the offensive weight for OU in the defensive grind, combining to score 20 of the team’s 31 points in the second half.
Allowing crucial offensive rebounds again proved to be the difference for Oklahoma.
The Cyclones pulled down 10 offensive boards, resetting and converting those opportunities into 14 second chance pointes on the night, dwarfing OU’s four second chance points.
Oklahoma will now hit the road for the first time in Big 12 play this season.
The Sooners will head to Lubbock on Saturday to take on the Texas Tech Red Raiders at 6 p.m., and the game will be broadcast on ESPN+.
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