Sooners defeat Cowboys in Bedlam matchup and regular season finale

Jeff Capel's Oklahoma Sooners had nothing to lose and everything to gain with a victory over cross-state rival OSU Cowboys in the Bedlam matchup on Saturday. The Sooners won the game 64-61 in a contest that allowed the lone senior on the team (senior guard Cade Davis) to go out as a winner fittingly on Senior Day, and after playing his last regular-season game at the Lloyd Noble Center. 

OU Athletic Director Joe Castiglione honored longtime Oklahoma radio play-by-play announcer Bob Barry Sr. in a halftime ceremony commemorating Barry's storied career calling football and basketball games for OU. 

Also in attendance at this game, were members of the Phoenix Suns professional basketball team, who were in town to face the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday.  

It was the perfect swan song and storybook ending that senior guard Cade Davis would lead the Sooners (13-17, 5-11 Big 12) to this victory, and this Bedlam win would inevitably knock the Cowboys (18-12, 6-10 Big 12) out of NCAA tournament consideration.

Davis has averaged over 20 points during the last five games and could not have stepped-up his play at a better time. 

"I was concerned he was going to be too jacked up.  Some guys on Senior Day, they want to do well so bad. He did a really good job of letting the game come to him. Obviously he was very emotional," said Sooners coach Jeff Capel. 

Sooners freshman Cameron Clark bounced back from the last game where he went scoreless, and chipped-in 15 points.  Steven Pledger was the third OU player to score in double figures in this game, and scored 11 points.  

OSU had a balanced scoring attack with four players in double figures (Moses, Brown, Dowell, Olukemi), but a victory over the Sooners was not going to happen on this day in a game played in front of nearly 8,000 partisan OU faithful. 

"Not taking anything away from OU, I'd rather them beat us playing our best basketbal, rather than them beat us and for us to beat ourselves," said Cowboys coach Travis Ford. 

The Sooners jumped out to a 13-2 lead primarily behind the inspired play of Cade Davis, although a late first-half run put OSU up at halftime by one point at 33-32. 

OU came out after halftime and regained the lead but had to rely on Davis' shut-down defense on OSU's best player (Keiton Page) on the very last play of the game to seal the victory.  

The win broke an ugly eight-game losing streak for the Sooners and should give them valuable momentum heading into the conference tournament. 

The Sooners will face the Baylor Bears next Wednesday and face a team that they have beaten at least once already during the regular season.  The Cowboys will face Nebraska and will be seeded ninth in the tournament.