Oklahoma secures dominant 86-68 road victory at Wake Forest

On Friday, the Sooners seemingly flipped a switch in the second half of their win over Marquette. That carried over for them on Tuesday night, as they picked up a second straight big win — this one an 86-68 road win over Wake Forest. This is just the second non-conference road win of the Porter Moser era, the last one coming against UCF in 2022.

The first half was surprisingly a defensive slugfest, in part due to the officiating taking over the game, but despite Tae Davis and Nijel Pack dealing with foul trouble all half, Oklahoma still led 37-35 at the break. Derrion Reid did a really good job stepping up offensively in the first half.

In the second half, it really clicked for the Sooners. They put together arguably one of the best halves of basketball in the Moser era, outscoring the Demon Deacons 49-33 and walking away with an 86-68 win in Winston-Salem. It was a very big win for Oklahoma, and the defense looked much improved.

Here are some quick takeaways from the win:

Tae Davis and Derrion Reid picked up where they left off

Davis and Reid both stayed hot, each finishing with 18 points. Davis had 18 points on 6-9 shooting from the field and 1-2 from deep. Reid ended with 18 points and four rebounds on 6-11 shooting and 2-4 from behind the arc.

It’s incredible the difference Davis playing well has made for this team over the last few games. He’s become the offensive hub they built this roster around, and he’s playing well defensively too. If there’s one thing that stands out between how this team looked a few weeks ago and how they look now, it’s him.

Reid has also been quietly playing really well. In the last three games, he has scored 16, 15, and 18 points — the three highest-scoring games of his career. It may not be flashy, but he has been solid. He’s also shooting 54.5 percent from deep during that stretch.

Jadon Jones stepped up

There might not be a player in college basketball better at drawing fouls on three-pointers than Jadon Jones. The lefty did it twice tonight. He finished with 11 points and four rebounds on 2-5 shooting from deep and 5-6 from the free throw line in 22 minutes, the most of any Sooner off the bench.

This is only his fourth game of the season, and he’s getting more and more acclimated. He played great defensively, guarding whichever one of Wake Forest’s top offensive players Oklahoma needed him to. He was exactly what they needed him to be: a true 3 and D wing.

Mohamed Wague played one of his best games

Five Sooners had two fouls at halftime. Wague was not one of them. He played a career-high 33 minutes and posted 11 points, 14 rebounds, three assists, two blocks, and a steal on 3-3 shooting from the field and 5-7 from the free throw line.

This was probably his best overall game in an Oklahoma uniform. He was exactly what Oklahoma needed him to be: strong on the boards, solid finishing around the rim, good defensively, and he stayed out of foul trouble. Really impressive performance.

Oklahoma, now 6-2, will return to action Saturday, December 6th, against Arizona State in Phoenix at 9:00 pm CT. After that, it’s Bedlam on Saturday, December 13th, in Oklahoma City. The Sooners need to go at least 1-1 in those games, and going 2-0 would make you feel really good about where things stand.

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