Harmon’s 22 leads OU to win over KU

De’Vion Harmon scored 22 points and Oklahoma beat No. 9 Kansas 75-68 Saturday for its second victory this month over a top-10 opponent.

Oklahoma (9-4, 5-3 Big 12) has won three of its last four games against Kansas

(10-5, 4-4) in Norman and is 8-1 at home this season at the Lloyd Noble Center. Included in that record is a win over then-No. 9 West Virginia on Jan. 2.

Kansas, which entered the game coming off losses at Oklahoma State and No. 2 Baylor, now has lost three straight games for the first time since February

2013. Marcus Garrett had 21 points and

12 rebounds to lead the Jayhawks, who were limited to two offensive rebounds. Kansas entered the game leading the Big

12 in rebounding margin but the Sooners outrebounded them 36-26.

“Big-time battle,” Oklahoma coach Lon Kruger said. “Both teams, I thought, fought like crazy. Buckets were hard to come by, at times, on both ends of the floor.

“Again, just proud of our guys. A game that could have gone either way. Guys hung in there, got a little bit of a margin there late, made free throws late and did a good job to close it out.”

A 9-2 run by Oklahoma broke open what had been a one-possession game and Austin Reaves’ first basket (after starting with seven misses) put the Sooners ahead 60-54 with 5:53 left.

Kansas pulled within 63-60 when Ochai Agbaji split a pair of free throws with 3:40 left, but Reaves and Umoja Gibson each followed with a driving layup to make it 67-60 and Kansas came no closer than four points the rest of the way.

Miles McBride scored 18 points to help No. 14 West Virginia beat Kansas State 69-47 on Saturday in the Mountaineers’ first game in two weeks because of COVID19 protocols.

Jalen Bridges added 12 points and Taz Sherman had 10 for West Virginia (10-4,

3-3 Big 12).

“I thought we were a bit rusty offensively, but defensively we stepped up and played one of our best games of the year,” McBride said. “We’ve been watching a lot of film and getting mental reps. Guys that could get on the floor did and we worked a lot on defense.”

Mike McGuirl led Kansas State (5-11,

1-7) with 15 points, and Selton Miguel had

10. The Wildcats had 28 turnovers, the most by a Big 12 team this season and the most in a game under coach Bruce Weber. West Virginia scored 26 points off those mistakes.

Mountaineers make their return:

Liddel leads OSU: E.J. Liddell scored 20 points and No. 15 Ohio State never trailed in a 74-62 victory over No. 10 Wisconsin that continued the Buckeyes’ recent road mastery of ranked opponents.

Ohio State (12-4, 6-4 Big Ten) has beaten Top 15 teams in each of its last three road games to underscore the conference’s lack of a true homecourt advantage this season with no spectators due to the pandemic. The Buckeyes beat then-No. 15 Rutgers on Jan. 9 and then-No. 14 Illinois on Jan. 16. Illinois is now 22nd and Rutgers unranked.

Wisconsin (12-4, 6-3) lost for just the second time in its last 20 home games.

Baylor stays unbeaten: Baylor’s depth and experience eventually overwhelmed an Oklahoma State team that was missing star freshman Cade Cunningham due to COVID-19 protocols.

Jared Butler scored 22 points, and the second-ranked Bears rallied from a halftime deficit to beat Oklahoma State 81-66 on Saturday.

Cunningham, the Big 12 Conference’s leading scorer, hasn’t been practicing. He was cleared for activity on Saturday, but coach Mike Boynton said Cunningham wasn’t ready to play.