It just couldn’t happen again. The previous three halves of basketball had just seen Oklahoma start out atrociously from the field and never really able to develop a rhythm.

The good news for the Sooners this year has been once a dud is in the books, Lon Kruger’s group has usually come out strong the next effort. That trend continued once again in OU’s dominating 82-69 win against visiting Oklahoma in round one of Bedlam on Saturday afternoon.

OU never trailed in the game to improve to 14-7 overall and 4-4 in Big 12 play.

This time around it was junior forward Brady Manek making the game look easy, and in turn, getting everybody else to breathe and play their game.

Manek connected on five 3-pointers with 17 points in the first eight minutes of the game on his way to a game-high 30 points.

“I would just say we were attacking the defense well,” Manek said. “I think we were moving it well. I happened to be the guy who was open a lot of the time. They found me, and I was knocking them down. You have to give up to everybody for drawing the defense in and forcing the kick.”

With Manek scoring 22 points in the first half, OSU was forced to slow him down, leading the way to Austin Reaves to make an imprint in his first Bedlam game.

Reaves notched 21 points with seven rebounds and six assists. Known heading into this season as a pure shooter, Reaves electrified Lloyd Noble Center with a couple of thunderous dunks. Including one in the second half where he contorted his body to be completely horizontal after the ball went through.

“I definitely knew he could, he just doesn't do it very much,” Manek said. “I think he needs to bring that energy more and I think those plays, like that, him and Alondes, are a momentum changer for everybody. I think it gets the team hype and gets us ready to play some defense.”

OU led by 13 at halftime and as many as 20 points in the second half to cruise to the victory. The Sooners are at Texas Tech on Tuesday night for the first of their two matchups.

Notes

*Manek joined the 1,000-point club two weeks ago, and now he has company with Kristian Doolittle. The senior only scored six points, but it was enough to put him in that company.

“It's pretty cool,” Doolittle said. “Whenever I scored there at the beginning, Brady told me, 'congrats.' But I didn't really focus about it. We still had a game to win. But you know, I'll celebrate that with my family.

“Something me and my dad have been talking about the past few games. But I guess it's pretty cool to get it in Bedlam and in a win. Just more importantly, focused about the win. I'll worry about personal accolades later.”

Doolittle did stuff the stat sheet, though, with 10 rebounds and a career-high seven assists with just one turnover. Creating from the middle of the zone, Doolittle was able to get OU’s offense running smoothly right out the gate.

*No, not a career high for Alondes Williams for the third straight game, but another solid effort with 12 points and three rim-rattling dunks.

Kruger said this is the fourth consecutive strong outing from Williams, who seems to be someone who plays better coming off the bench instead of in the starting lineup.

“He's been amazing, honestly,” Reaves said. “He gives us a spark off the bench, someone that can create a shot for not just himself but others. I think that's what a lot of people look over is his ability to make plays for others. He gives us fast-break points, plays good defense.”

*OU had 19 assists on 29 field goals, and that’s another trend that has been developing. Sounds simple to say, but when OU is making shots, the ball movement is pretty crisp.

“Moving the ball, when you make shots it makes moving the ball look even better,” Kruger said. “They shared the ball very well. They made some good cuts away from the ball to create opportunities. It was probably, for 40 minutes, overall, probably one of the better efforts on both ends of the floor. So we need to keep that going.”

Quotable

“That's what we need. Somebody to grab the bull by the horns and say I'm going to be the guy who gets that going in the right direction. Right now, we don't have that.” – OSU head coach Mike Boynton on Manek’s performance