Sooners Stuff Texas Tech at Lloyd Noble, 63-48

The throbbing pain in De'Angelo Alexander's sprained right ankle had him hobbling everywhere from the parking lot to the locker room.

Everywhere but on the court, that is.

With Texas Tech (No. 19 ESPN/USA Today, No. 18 AP) making a frantic second-half rally Wednesday night, Oklahoma's sophomore guard started worrying about a lot more than his sore ankle.

"It bothered me, but I had to look past it," Alexander said. "We were kind of going into a drought. My team needed me."

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Alexander sparked a late 13-2 run with a couple of 3-pointers and freshman Lawrence McKenzie scored 15 points, helping Oklahoma bounce back from its lowest scoring output in nearly 50 years with a 63-48 victory.

The Sooners (15-5, 5-4 Big 12) looked nothing like the offensively clueless squad that was routed 66-37 by Texas on Sunday, their lowest point total since 1955.

Oklahoma went 9-for-22 from 3-point range -- a stark turnaround from its 1-of-21 showing in Austin -- and scored just often enough to hold off the Red Raiders (17-6, 5-4) down the stretch.

"I was real proud of how our team bounced back," coach Kelvin Sampson said. "We just keep plugging and we'll be OK."

Alexander and Drew Lavender each scored 11 points for the Sooners, who have won 48 of their last 50 home games. The win -- Oklahoma's first over a Top 25 team this year -- moved the Sooners into a fourth-place tie in the Big 12 with Texas Tech.

The Red Raiders have lost four of their past five games after a 12-game winning streak.

Andre Emmett, the Big 12's leading scorer, led Texas Tech with 22 points. Devonne Giles was the only other Red Raider to score in double figures with 10 points.

It was Texas Tech's first game in Norman since last year's dispute over a slow-starting clock that allowed Oklahoma to win a pivotal Big 12 showdown. The loss infuriated Texas Tech coach Bob Knight and severely strained his relationship with Sampson.

In the final seconds of the win, Oklahoma's fans taunted the notoriously temperamental coach with chants of "Go home Bobby!"

At the game's end, Knight and Sampson hurriedly shook hands and didn't speak to each other.

Oklahoma, unranked for the first time in 46 weeks, led 23-8 after 10 minutes and controlled much of the game's tempo from there.

"Oklahoma put us in a hole to start out the ballgame," Knight said. "Oklahoma really responded well to their game over the weekend. When we played well and got back into it, they really responded and rose to the occasion."

Still, the Sooners didn't exactly set the nets on fire.

Oklahoma, the worst-shooting team in the conference, went 2-of-20 from the field during one stretch that allowed Tech to go on a 14-3 run that cut its lead to 34-33.

But Alexander hit consecutive 3s and McKenzie followed with two free throws and a 3-pointer to give the Sooners a 56-43 lead with 4:09 to play.

Alexander, who wasn't even expected to play after spraining his ankle in the loss to Texas, challenged his teammates before the game to forget about Sunday's humiliating loss.

Too many more lopsided defeats, he warned, and Oklahoma would have a hard time earning an at-large berth in the NCAA tournament.

"I actually told my teammates that I don't want to play in the NIT, honestly," Alexander said. "I want to play in the NCAA."

The only Sooner who went scoreless was, ironically, leading scorer Jason Detrick. Detrick missed all four of his field goal attempts.

It was Oklahoma's second straight win in which its leading scorer at the time didn't have a point. Lavender was shut out in the Sooners' 75-48 win over Iowa State on Feb. 4.

"We don't have a leading scorer," Sampson said. "The way our team plays has nothing to do with the stat sheet."

Oklahoma nearly matched its point total from Sunday's debacle in the first half.

The Sooners went into halftime with a 31-21 lead, mostly by forcing the Red Raiders into 16 turnovers and holding them to 31 percent shooting.

Texas Tech, which was held to a season low in points, had twice as many turnovers (16) as field goals (8) in the first half.

"Our guard play has not been good in terms of getting the ball to people that are open," Knight said. "We have to figure out something to take care of that."

Sooners Stuff Texas Tech at Lloyd Noble, 63-48

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Sooners Stuff Texas Tech at Lloyd Noble, 63-48

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