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Oklahoma upsets No. 22 Kansas State

Jan 29, 2012 - 4:11 AM Manhattan, KS (Sports Network) - Steven Pledger poured in a game-high 30 points and pulled down five rebounds as Oklahoma squeezed past No. 22 Kansas State, 63-60, on Saturday.

Cameron Clark finished with 11 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the floor to go with six rebounds for the Sooners (13-7, 3-5 Big 12), who snapped their brief two-game losing streak.

Rodney McGruder paced the Wildcats (15-5, 4-4) with 19 points, while Angel Rodriguez added 10 points and Jamar Samuels donated nine points to go with eight rebounds in the loss. Kansas State had its three-game winning streak snapped.

Trailing, 51-49, with 5:27 to play in regulation, Pledger knocked down a three-pointer to give the Sooners a 52-51 lead, one they did not relinquish.

Pledger drained another trey to give his team a little breathing room at 55-51 with under five minutes to play.

Jamar Samuels netted a pair of free throws to pull the Wildcats within two with 3:12 left, but Oklahoma came up with a big bucket on their ensuing possession courtesy of a layup by Sam Grooms with 2:51 left. The Sooners regained their four-point lead at 57-53.

McGruder drained a big three for Kansas State with 2:15 left to pull them within 57-56, but a pair of free throws by Pledger following a foul on McGruder gave the Sooners a three-point margin with just over a minute to play.

Will Spradling put home a layup with 48 seconds left to again get Kansas State within one, but Romero Osby calmly stepped to the line and knocked down two of his four points with nine seconds left, and Grooms stroked two more free throws with only five seconds remaining to finish off the upset victory.

"Tough, tough game obviously, but I am excited for our guys we have been working hard and making some progress," Oklahoma head coach Lon Kruger said. "I told the guys after the game that the win was great, but more importantly. I thought we showed a little bit more toughness, fight and competiveness than we have."

The game remained close throughout the majority of the first half, with Oklahoma holding a 23-22 lead with 4:25 to play in the opening 20 minutes.

A layup by Spradling put Kansas back up, 25-24 with 3:25 left, but Oklahoma closed out the first half on a 10-3 run to lead 34-28 at the break.

Oklahoma opened the second half with the first four points to expand its lead to 38-28 early in the stanza, but Kansas State answered with a 12-2 flurry to tie the game at 40 with just over 13 minutes to play.

The game went back-and-forth from there until Martavious Irving drained a trey to give the Wildcats the 51-49 edge.

"They dug up and got after us, they made it a real physical game," Kansas State head coach Frank Martin said. " Obviously we did not respond, we turned the ball over 20 times. Our turnovers are not aggressive turnovers, they are just careless passive turnovers that lead to easy points. That is a problem."

Game Notes

Oklahoma holds a 104-91 advantage in this longstanding series...The Sooners finished off the regular-season sweep after posting an 82-73 victory over KSU in Norman back on January 14th...Oklahoma turned 20 Kansas State turnovers into 22 points...The Sooners shot 40 percent from the floor and 4-of-9 from three-point range, while Kansas State shot 41 percent from the field and just 3-of-17 from three-point range...The Wildcats fell to 2-3 when trailing at halftime...Kansas State outrebounded Oklahoma, 32-25.