Basketball & Other Sports

(OU Sports Information)

AMES, Iowa -- Oklahoma’s last gasp needed another two minutes.

The Sooners cut a 17-point second-half deficit to 1, but allowed seven unanswered points to undo their hard work in a 77-71 loss to Iowa State Saturday at Hilton Coliseum.

Oklahoma held Iowa State without a field goal for seven minutes as part of a 12-minute span that saw a 47-30 Cyclone lead drop to 50-42 and then survived another wave of back-and-forth shooting to get the game to its final stanza.

Whitney Hand scored six straight points for OU to kick off a scoring run that cut the gap to 61-60 with 2 ½ minutes remaining. From there, Nikki Moody hit two of 12 free throws Iowa State would make over the final 124 seconds and Lauren Mansfield followed with a sixth 3-pointer as part of a game-high 22 points to seal the victory.

Aaryn Ellenberg scored 19 and Nicole Griffin had a season-high 14 points. Hand and Morgan Hook each added 13.

Iowa State led 43-28 at halftime, helped by eight first-half 3-pointers. The Cyclones averaged just seven 3-pointers per game entering the night.

For much of the second half, Oklahoma looked as if it would steal another win from the grasp of Iowa State. The Sooners trailed in the January matchup by 7 and rallied for an 80-51 victory.