The Sooners battled to keep the game close throughout the first half, but No. 8 Kansas proved to be too much down the stretch. The Jayhawks shot 71 percent in the second half Wednesday night at Allen Fieldhouse to top the Sooners 84-62.

Kansas, (18-4, 8-1), suffered its first conference loss of the season Saturday, and for a while it looked like the Sooners just might pull off the upset and give them their second straight.

Kansas looked to put the game out of reach early. The Jayhwaks took a 30-19 lead with 5:34 remaining in the first half after guard Elijah Johnson hit consecutive 3-point shots and KU junior guard Tyshawn Taylor made a layup in heavy traffic.

The Sooners responded, however. After coach Lon Kruger called a timeout, his team allowed Kansas to score only one more basket the entire half en route to a 12-2 run. When junior guard Steven Pledger hit his second three of the half with only 15 seconds remaining, the Sooners were suddenly down by only three and had all of the momentum. That, however, was as close as Oklahoma would ever be to the Jayhawks.

Kansas came out of the locker room on fire to start the second half and answered Oklahoma’s run with a 12-2 run of its own to open the lead up to 44-33. From there, the No. 8 team in the country never looked back. Kansas kept pulling ahead, eventually reaching a 31-point lead over the Sooners. After that, coach Bill Self started clearing the bench.

Junior Romero Osby had a huge night for the Sooners, grabbing 7 rebounds and adding 19 points. Junior guard Steven Pledger added 17 points of his own, and as a team, Oklahoma shot 3-of-4 from behind the arc to keep the game competitive early.

As the game wore on, though, Kansas simply had too much firepower for Oklahoma to handle. Player of the Year candidate Thomas Robinson had 20 points for the Jayhawks, and explosive postman Tyshawn Taylor added 21.

The Sooners will look to rebound at 5 p.m. Saturday from Lloyd Noble Center in Norman when they take on the Iowa State Cyclones.