No. 1 Oklahoma beats No. 13 Baylor 82-72

The opening half of OU’s big rebound win at Baylor provided an example of the balance and overall strength of this Sooner team. Prince’s 3-pointer capped the spurt for a 22-16 lead with 8:51 left in the first half, only seconds after Hield left the game with two fouls and Woodard came in for him.

Today’s Oklahoma Sooners vs Baylor Bears college basketball game on ESPN2 TV and Watch ESPN3 live streaming has huge implications for the Big 12 standings.

The Sooners used three successive 3-point buckets to open the second half with an 11-4 run before pushing out that run to 23-6, which blew the game wide open and out of reach of the Bears. The Sooners were never headed after that and, in fact, opened up a 24-point advantage late in the game.

The four-time defending Big 12 champions return four of the seven Sooners that earned All-Big 12 honors last season, including Paige Parker, who was Big 12 Freshman of the Year and Big 12 Pitcher of the Year. Baylor has five players averaging at least nine points and will attempt to keep its 43rd consecutive opponent to fewer than 75 while Oklahoma comes in averaging 85.7 after losing at Iowa State 82-77 on Monday.

Oklahoma (16-2, 5-2 Big 12) matched its season high with 16 3-pointers, including five by Jordan Woodard when he had all 20 of his points in the first half.

Baylor has risen to sole possession of first place in the Big 12 and the 15th-ranked Bears will try to maintain their position when No. 1 Oklahoma visits on Saturday. The Sooners were beaten on the boards by a margin of 34-18, but forced 16 Baylor turnovers and dished out a whopping 29 assists. The offensive rebounding discrepancy was easily explained, however, by OU’s 62 percent shooting for the game.

Baylor: The Bears are 0-7 all-time against No. 1 teams, and 0-15 against teams ranked in the Top 10….

Oklahoma hosts Texas Tech on Tuesday night.