Despite everything it did to earn the No. 2 seed, Oklahoma fell flat early in Kansas City.
OU lost to Baylor 78-73 in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 tournament, knocking the Sooners out of the conference championship race.
Coach Lon Kruger’s squad had trouble getting anything going from the jump.
Baylor started the game on a 10-0 run in which OU could get just two rebounds while missing five shots.
For the first 10 minutes, Oklahoma could not find its way in the paint. At the 9:45 mark, Baylor took a 14-6 lead on the boards, a reason they lead 22-14 on the scoreboard.
In the final five minutes of the half, Baylor extended its lead, doubling up the Sooners 12-6 to bring the score to 47-31 at the half.
But OU received some energy in the middle of the second half from Cameron Clark. The senior forward made three straight field goals to jolt his teammates, including a massive dunk with 14:32 left in the game.
Clark’s shots started a 13-1 Oklahoma run that brought OU back within nine points of Baylor, trailing the Bears 56-47 with 10:30 to play.
The teams battled back and forth for a while, trading buckets without the margin getting any smaller than 11 for over five minutes.
The Sooners finally got the Baylor lead down to 10 after a Clark three with five minutes on the clock. On the next possession, Buddy Hield put back a missed three that was called goaltending by Isaiah Austin to get within eight for the first time in the second half.
After trading two points each, Hield hit just his second three of the night to make it a five-point game. Hield hit another with 1:30 to play to bring it to four.
But when the Sooners needed the shots to fall, they didn’t.
Missed threes by Jordan Woodard and Clark forced Oklahoma to foul, allowing Baylor to put the game away.
OU did make it a three-point game after five quick points from Woodard, but it was too late.
Austin gave OU problems all night. The 7-foot-1 Baylor big man was a massive mismatch for the Sooners, allowing Austin to take advantage of the smaller Ryan Spangler, Clark and others down low. OU typically is mismatched down low, but the effort it put out against Baylor’s bigs may cause some concern for Kruger in the NCAA tournament.
Austin finished with 18 points, five rebounds and five blocks against Oklahoma.
OU’s scorers struggled just as much as the bigs. Hield had 15 points on 6-15 shooting, but had only seven in the first 35 minutes of play. Isaiah Cousins had only 6 points on 2-7 shooting.
Clark was Oklahoma’s only hope until the last five minutes, finishing with 19 points.
The NCAA selection committee will determine the Sooners’ next opponent. The 68-team field for the NCAA tournament will be announced Sunday.
