OU basketball wakes up, takes over, rolls South Carolina in SEC Tournament, 86-74
Check off another one of those ‘retribution games’ for OU basketball. And cross off the original meeting, the worst outing of the season.
OU fell behind early before roaring back to cruise to an 86-74 victory against South Carolina in the SEC Tournament in Nashville.
OU trailed 36-23 before finally waking up. The Sooners ended the first half on a 19-6 run to tie it at 42-42 at halftime.
The final 20 minutes were all about the Sooners. In particular, a huge night from sophomore Derrion Reid. Propelled by the dagger shot to beat Texas last weekend, he delivered an even better performance against the Gamecocks. Reid had 20 points.
South Carolina could not miss in the first half, especially from 3-point territory. The Gamecocks, who came in averaging eight made 3s per game, connected on seven of their first 10 attempts.
The only reason OU was hanging around was Tae Davis. Another case of guys taking their turns of when they needed to turn it up.
Davis scored 15 of his 18 points in the first half.
Nijel Pack, who had four turnovers in the first half, calmed down and played a brilliant second half. He did not make a 3-pointer in the first matchup against South Carolina. Pack made five Wednesday night. Pack closed with a game-high 24 points.
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“We knew we had a path. We had a different route we had to take,” said Pack to SEC Network about staying together after the nine-game losing streak. “It shaped us into the team we are today… We’re totally different players, different confidence and playing super hard, super hard.”
A whole bunch of Bubble teams lost, saw them burst in the last 36 hours (Stanford, Virginia Tech, SMU, Cincinnati, Indiana, West Virginia, Texas, Cal). And here’s OU, now winners of five in a row and seven of its last nine, making the charge.
The path continues for another night for Porter Moser and company.
OU started 1-for-8 from 3-point territory, finished 11-for-24. South Carolina? Went from 7-for-10 to 11-for-29. Simply had to weather the storm.
Mission accomplished. Need the next one, for sure, and then you can start really believing.
Up next
One ‘retribution game’ after another. Missouri, Texas and South Carolina in the books. Now? Texas A&M. The Aggies took down the Sooners (18-14) twice this season, by seven in College Station, by four in Norman. Round 3 is set for approximately 8:30 p.m. Thursday.
