Learning early and often this season for Oklahoma that there can just be a time when point guard Grant Sherfield says it’s time to go.

He said it was that time again during the second half and put the team on his back in a 75-53 victory against visiting UMKC on Tuesday evening at the Lloyd Noble Center.

Sherfield only had two points at halftime before taking over to finish with 24 points, including making five 3-pointers in the second half.

But head coach Porter Moser, who has seen Sherfield have these types of performances this season and in practice, praised Sherfield’s defensive game. He said that was the best defensive outing Sherfield has had at OU.

“I've seen him get cooking before,” Moser said. “I've seen it in practice. I've seen it in games. I thought he had his best defensive game. That's what I told him. He played really hard on the defensive end. Guarding the ball. Keeping them in ball screens.

“If you rewatch the tape, you're gonna see how hard he played on the defensive end. And that's what I told him. I said, 'Man...'. He had two points at halftime. But I thought he was doing a good job defensively.”

The offense, though, was certainly a catalyst to the rest of the team relaxing and finding their groove as well in the second 20 minutes.

He needed to flip that switch, or OU needed someone to rise up because it was 27-27 at halftime, with OU looking hesitant and the Roos being the much more physical team.

That changed as well in the second half.

OU only had 10 rebounds in the first half, finishing with 27 for the game and holding the Roos to under 36 percent shooting from the field.

“I always say the rebound is the admission ticket to the fast break,” Moser said. “If you’re rebounding, you can get going. And I thought that was why we got the pace going. We talked about it at halftime. Getting individual rebounding and get the pace going cause they wanted you to play slow. And I thought our guys did, but I thought we responded after halftime.”

Tanner Groves finished with 11 points despite spending part of the second half on the bench in foul trouble.

Tip-ins

* Freshman guard Los Uzan made his first start of the season, replacing sophomore C.J. Noland among the initial five.

Uzan responded with 11 points (seven coming in the first half), five assists and two steals. It is the first double-digit performance for Uzan.

"I just thought it was time,” Moser said. “He's been playing really well. He's been in practice and in the games, andI think his minutes has been really good.

“I thought he responded great. He had 11 points and five assists in his first start. He had five assists, but he could have had about 10. He threw some dimes for some open threes that we just didn't knock down. I thought he guarded well. So it was just time and I thought he responded really well.”

Uzan found out he was starting Monday afternoon. With that type of performance, hard to see that lineup changing, at least in the short term.

“I was just excited,” Uzan said. “First start so pretty cool. But really I was just trying to have fun. Trying to win. Whatever it really took honestly. But I wasn’t really concerned about how I would perform. I was just trying to have fun, for real.”

* Sam Godwin and Bijan Cortes continued to give meaningful minutes off the bench. When the team was in a funk for the better part of the first half, it was Godwin who came up with a couple of and-one opportunities.

Godwin finished with 10 points, while Cortes had four points and three assists.

“Coming in, I knew what my role was,” Godwin said. “Come in and provide hustle plays and offensive rebounds, anything I could do to get the team extra possessions. So that’s my focus going into the game every night and just giving my best effort.”

*Up next: OU (7-2) plays No. 9 Arkansas at noon Saturday at the BOK Center in Tulsa. The Sooners played their best game of last year’s regular season in their win against the Razorbacks in Tulsa.