Sooners dominate Texas A&M, advance in SEC Tournament

It was one thing to beat 14-seed South Carolina, but it’s another thing to absolutely dominate 6-seed Texas A&M, and that’s exactly what Oklahoma did on Thursday night in Nashville as they remain hot, grabbing a dominant 83-63 win.

Oklahoma jumped out to a quick start, going on an 8-0 run to put them up 14-6 at the first media timeout. Shortly after, they went on another 8-0 run, giving them a 25-11 lead behind 11 early points from Nijel Pack, who was on fire.

The Sooners pushed that lead even further as they made it a 15-3 run and held a 32-14 lead with 8:12 remaining in the first half as Pack’s backcourt mate Xzayvier Brown began to heat up.

Oklahoma ultimately never let up in the first half as they played what was probably the best half of the Porter Moser era, holding a 49-27 lead at the break. They shot 19-32 (59.4%) from the field in the first half and 6-15 (40%) from behind the arc.

The guards showed up in the first half as Pack notched 15 points on 6-8 shooting from the field while Brown totaled 12 points and five rebounds on 5-8 shooting from the field.

Oklahoma did a great job handling Texas A&M’s press in the first half and, despite having a few bad turnovers, ultimately got many easy points off breaking the press.

Texas A&M opened the second half shooting 5-5 from the field and 3-3 from behind the arc, going on an 8-0 run to cut Oklahoma’s lead to 54-40.

Just as the Aggies were storming back into the game, the Sooners had an answer as they responded with a 6-0 run to give them a 62-44 lead with 11:50 left in the second half.

Oklahoma continued to push its lead as it went on another run and held a 75-54 lead with 5:58 remaining in the game. It was all Sooners from there as they held on and grabbed a dominant 83-63 win over Texas A&M.

The Sooners have now won eight of their last 10 games and are on a six-game win streak. Additionally, this win over Texas A&M marks the first time an Oklahoma team has won two games in a conference tournament since 2003.

Oklahoma is now 19-14 and advancing in the SEC Tournament.

Notes

– Nijel Pack once again led the way for Oklahoma. He was on fire in the first half from behind the arc and was the catalyst in the early runs. Pack finished with 20 points and three assists on 8-14 shooting from the field and 4-10 shooting from deep in 28 minutes.

Pack took a shot to the face late in the second half on what was determined to be a flagrant foul. He did not return. This will be something to monitor.

– Xzayvier Brown also had an impressive night, though he wasn’t overly efficient, going for 16 points, six rebounds, and three assists on 6-19 shooting from the field and 2-8 shooting from deep in 31 minutes. In the first half, he had 12 points on 5-8 shooting from the field.

– Derrion Reid had yet another really impressive performance, posting a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds in 26 minutes. He shot 6-11 from the field and 0-3 from deep. This is now the second straight game where Reid has been very impressive.

– Tae Davis notched 14 points, nine rebounds, and four assists in 33 minutes on 4-6 shooting from the field, 1-2 shooting from deep, and 5-7 shooting from the free throw line. Davis was crucial as another ball handler in breaking Texas A&M’s press.

– Mohamed Wague had another impressive night where he stayed out of foul trouble, playing 23 minutes. Wague had 7 points, eight rebounds, and three blocks on 2-4 shooting from the field and 3-6 shooting from the free throw line.

– As for the bench, Kirill Elatontsev, who played just one minute on Wednesday night, totaled 6 points and six rebounds on 3-4 shooting from the field in 17 minutes. Dayton Forsythe posted 0 points and two assists on 0-5 shooting from the field and 0-3 shooting from deep in 20 minutes.

Jadon Jones continued to give Oklahoma really good minutes as he totaled 5 points, three rebounds, two assists, and a block on 2-5 shooting from the field and 1-3 shooting from deep in 21 minutes of action.

– Oklahoma shot 31-68 (45.6%) from the field on the night and, despite being hot early, didn’t shoot all that well from behind the arc, going 8-30 (26.7%).

– Up next: The Sooners advance to the third round of the SEC Tournament to take on 3-seed Arkansas at 8:30 p.m. on SEC Network. A win over the Razorbacks would remove all doubt regarding their NCAA Tournament hopes, as right now they will likely find themselves right on the cut line.

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