NORMAN, Okla. – Ryan Spangler scored all 13 of his points in the second half and grabbed a career-high 16 rebounds to help No. 25 Oklahoma hold off Texas Christian 77-69 on Wednesday night.
Buddy Hield had 16 points and Cameron Clark added 15 for the Sooners (15-4, 4-2 Big 12), who moved into a tie for second place in the Big 12 despite struggling against the last-place team in the league.
The Sooners struggled to score for much of the night but made up for it by playing one of their best defensive games. Oklahoma held TCU to 43 percent shooting and forced 16 turnovers.
Kyan Anderson scored 23 points and Amric Fields added 15 for TCU (9-9, 0-6), which lost its previous four conference games by an average of 22 points. Karviar Shepherd added 12 points and 11 rebounds for the Horned Frogs.
Texas Christian trailed 43-42 in the opening minutes of the second half before Isaiah Cousins made a jumper, then a steal by Clark led to a dunk by Hield to give Oklahoma a 47-42 lead and caused TCU to call a timeout.
TCU scored the next five points to tie the score at 47 with about 13 minutes to play.
Spangler made his first basket of the game, was fouled and made the free throw to give Oklahoma the lead again. A 3-pointer by Clark pushed Oklahoma’s advantage to 57-49 with just under 11 minutes remaining. A steal and layup by Clark bumped the Sooners’ lead to 10.
Fields made a 3-pointer, then Oklahoma turned the ball over and Anderson hit a 3 to trim OU’s lead to 59-55. Fields tied the score at 66 on a layup with 3:46 remaining, but Oklahoma held the Horned Frogs without a field goal the rest of the way. Spangler hit a 3-pointer with 33 seconds remaining, just his third of the season, to give the Sooners a 77-67 lead.
__
Follow Cliff Brunt on Twitter: www.twitter.com/CliffBruntAP.
Leave a Reply