How OU basketball's Javian McCollum's 'great decisions' sparked Sooners past Iowa State

NORMAN — Le’Tre Darthard took the pass from Javian McCollum at the top of the key and the crowd at Lloyd Noble Center held its collective breath.

Near silence rang out through the arena as Darthard sent the shot sailing.

When it went through, the crowd erupted as the 3-pointer came during a critical late run for 11th-ranked OU as the Sooners knocked off Iowa State 71-63 on Saturday to open their final run through conference play in the Big 12.

During the critical 7-0 run that saw the Sooners come from one back to taking control with a little more than three minutes remaining, McCollum took on a different role.

He’d been leading the scoring charge for OU, and finished with a game-high 15 points, but when it mattered most, McCollum became a facilitator.

The Siena transfer assisted on each of the Sooners’ three buckets during the stretch, finding Sam Godwin for a dunk, then the assist to Darthard, and finally a cutting Godwin at the bucket for another layup to once again send the crowd into a frenzy.

"He made great decisions," Sooners coach Porter Moser said. "You got to give yourself up sometimes. They were really heating him up and he made some great decisions. We went to that little action, and Sam was rolling, and Javian made some really good plays out of that."

It wasn’t McCollum’s best shooting day — he finished just 6 of 16 from the field and 3 of 10 from beyond the 3-point line — but he made the plays when the Sooners needed them most.

"That's a not-getting-too-sped-up play," Moser said of McCollum's late assists. "That's what Iowa State does. They speed you up because they're physical. They're so coming at you, sometimes you get sped up. He didn't get sped up going down the stretch."

Here are three other takeaways from the win:

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Otega Oweh battles foul trouble

The Sooners had to play much of the first half without their top scorer.

Just after re-entering the game with 12:45 left in the first half, Otega Oweh picked up a foul. Sixteen seconds later, Oweh picked up another and headed to the bench.

Oweh did return for two more brief stints before halftime but played just 1:18 in those two stretches.

"I told him, 'I'm playing you in the first half,'" Moser said. "I kept on playing him. It was only a minute here or minute there. I wanted him to know we were going to need him in the second half."

Oweh finished with a season-low eight points and was held without a field goal for the first time this season as he went 8 of 10 from the free-throw line.

"I thought he did some good defensive things in the second half," Moser said. "But he did, stepped up and made some free throws."

More: Five things to know about the Sooners going into Big 12 play

Lloyd Noble Center comes alive

After Milos Uzan hit a jumper to put No. 11 Oklahoma up three in the second half of Saturday’s matchup with Iowa State, the crowd at Lloyd Noble Center stood.

They clapped.

They stomped.

They chanted “de-fense” in unison as the Cyclones worked their way up the court.

Then the crowd exploded when McCollum stole the ball from Jackson Paveletzke and then finished with a layup on the other end to bring a giant roar to the crowd in the Sooners’ eventual win.

The student section might not have been as rowdy as it’ll be once classes resume and all students are back on campus, but the crowd at LNC took a big step forward Saturday,

With football season over, OU’s final season of Big 12 play beginning, and the Sooners ranked just outside the top 10, there was plenty of added energy from the season-high home crowd of 11,333.

“I haven’t seen this arena this loud and this packed since Buddy Hield was here,” King McClure said on the ESPN+ broadcast.

McClure should know.

He played for Baylor from 2015-19.

As a freshman, McClure came off the bench and played a big role in the Bears pushing the Hield-led Sooners to the brink in 2016, coming back from a 21-point halftime deficit before OU finished off a 73-71 win that season.

McClure also played for Baylor two seasons later when Trae Young electrified the LNC crowd.

OU's Milos Uzan certainly sensed the difference.

"I'm liking the crowd right now," Uzan said. "I think the more we keep winning, the more they'll show up, so I like this."

Moser made it a point to thank the crowd.

"The people that were here were loud," Moser said. "You could tell the last four minutes were different than what we've had in here. If we can just keep growing and keep going, I think we have the students back for the next time (Jan. 17 vs. West Virginia)."

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Sooners’ 3-point defense excels

Iowa State was just 3 for 16 from beyond the arc in the game, shooting 18.8%.

It was the Cyclones’ second-worst 3-point shooting night of the season and the fourth time the Sooners had held an opponent to below 20% from beyond the arc this season.

It was the lowest 3-point shooting at LNC for an OU Big 12 opponent since Texas Tech shot 11.8% in 2022.

The 3-point defense wound up being the virtual difference in the game, as OU made 10 3-pointers, including going 5 of 9 from beyond the arc in the second half.

Three of Rivaldo Soares' season-high nine rebounds came off Iowa State missed 3-pointers.

"I'm trying to get a rebound every time I'm in the game," Soares said. "They happened to be falling my way today and I was going to get 'em. Some nights I don't score a whole lot of points so I gotta get myself going another way."

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU men's basketball topples Iowa State in Big 12 opener