BATON ROUGE, La. -- The Ben Simmons-versus-Buddy Hield showdown produced the fireworks everyone expected Saturday.
However, it took a Hield-led scoring run in the game’s closing minutes for top-ranked Oklahoma to dodge LSU’s upset bid in a 77-75 victory at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The Sooners had led for all of 16 seconds when Hield -- who finished with a game-high 32 points -- drilled a 3-pointer with 4 minutes, 5 seconds to play, giving the Sooners a 66-65 lead. And even then, it took a 10-foot jumper by Isaiah Cousins with 4 seconds to play and Khadeem Lattin’s block of a Tim Quarterman layup at the buzzer for the Sooners to hold on for a win.