Nijel Pack scored 24 points to lead Oklahoma to a 75-74 come-from behind victory over Marquette In the Bad Boy Mowers Series on Friday in Chicago.
Tae Davis finished with 19 points on 8-of-9 shooting with 11 rebounds for Oklahoma (5-2), while Derrion Reid added 15 points.
Ross led Marquette (4-4) with 21 points while Nigel James Jr. added 20 and Royce Parham 13.
Oklahoma led by eight with 2:30 left, after a 34-14 stretch by the Sooners, but had to hold on.
But then Marquette got hot, scoring eight consecutive points, including a pair of 3-pointers by Chase Ross.
Ross’ second tied the game with 58 seconds remaining.
The Sooners took the lead on Derrion Reid’s 3-pointer with 35 seconds left, but Davis fouled James just after the inbounds and James made two free throws to make it a one-point game.
With less than 18 seconds left, Xzayvier Brown slipped on the court as he moved to catch a pass from Pack, letting the ball go out of bounds and giving the Golden Eagles the ball back with a chance to win it.
After a timeout, the Golden Eagles dribbled the clock down, trying to create a shot for Ross.
But the Sooners’ defense kept Ross from getting a good look, and his last-season jumper over Jeff Nwankwo hit off the backboard and bounced away to give the Sooners the win.
The Golden Eagles were just 2 of 11 from beyond the arc in the second half.
Marquette stretched its lead to 12 with a 13-5 run to start the second half.
But then the Sooners turned up the heat defensively, and got better offensively as well.
OU was just 15 of 40 from the floor before making five consecutive shots and 7 of 9 during a 21-5 run to jump ahead.
The Golden Eagles went more than six minutes between field goals, missing nine consecutive shots during the run.
Oklahoma never tied the game or took the lead after the initial bucket until Davis’ game-tying jumper with just more than nine minutes remaining and then Nwankwo’s go-ahead 3-pointer 90 seconds later.
–Field Level Media
