Lavender leads Sooner rally

DALLAS (AP) -- The smallest man on the court came up the biggest for Oklahoma.

Once Drew Lavender shook off the nervous jitters, the 5-foot-7 freshman sparked the comeback that kept three-time defending Big 12 tournament champion Oklahoma from getting upset in the first round.

Lavender scored 16 of his 19 points after halftime when the Sooners rallied from a 13-point deficit to beat Nebraska 63-59 Thursday night.

After making just one of his six shots before halftime, he drove for a layup and made a floating one-handed bank shot to start the second half. Those baskets sparked a 19-5 run that put the Sooners (19-9) ahead to stay.

"The first half, I played too timid out there, was kind of nervous," Lavender said. "The second half, I got the jitters out and played my game. ... I went about playing."

Lavender made 7-of-10 shots after halftime, when the Sooners shot 55 percent (16 of 29).

The Sooners had their worst-shooting half of the season, hitting just 8-of-32 shots while falling behind 35-22 by halftime. But when Lavender turned things around, so did Oklahoma.

"As Drew goes, we go," said Jason Detrick, who added 16 points. "When Drew plays with a lot of energy and hard like he did in the second half, the team feeds off of him. He was our sparkplug."

Oklahoma won its 10th straight Big 12 tournament game since losing in the 2000 title game, keeping alive its slim hopes for an NCAA berth. The Sooners, who came in as the No. 7 seed for a league that has never had more than six teams advance, plays No. 11 Texas in a quarterfinal Friday night.

"We know the odds against this team," coach Kelvin Sampson said.

Nebraska (16-12) lost in the first round for the fifth straight season. The Cornhuskers still could play again, likely in the NIT for the first time since 1999.

"The aggressive team won each half," Nebraska coach Barry Collier said. "I'm disappointed to be in the position we were in at halftime and to have squandered a good lead."

Lavender had nine points in the opening second-half spurt and Oklahoma went ahead 41-40 on Larry Turner's follow-up shot with 12:14 left. That was the only lead change and the Sooners went on to build as much as an 11-point lead.

Even after going nearly 11 minutes without a field goal, Nebraska was within 54-48 when Corey Simms made a layup with six minutes left. The Huskers got within four in the final minute before Brandon Foust made two huge defensive plays for the Sooners.

Foust tied up Nate Johnson in the Nebraska end, giving the ball back to Oklahoma on alternate possession with 50 seconds left. After Lavender missed a free throw, Marcus Neal missed a shot and Foust got the rebound with 29 seconds left before missing his own free throw.

Turner and Foust have expanded roles without Jabahri Brown, the senior post player who was removed from the team because of misdemeanor drug possession charges. That has left the Sooners with just seven scholarship players.

Foust played a season-high 32 minutes, and Turner's 19 minutes were six above his season average while playing with four fouls. Both had five rebounds.

Johnson's miss with 19 seconds left was rebounded by De'Angelo Alexander, who managed to call timeout before falling out of bounds.

Simms led Nebraska with 14 points. John Turek had 10 points, but had just a pair of free throws after scoring the first eight points for the Huskers.

Turek scored the game's first six points, and the Huskers built as much as a 15-point lead before Oklahoma's second-half comeback.

"They were aggressive and we got comfortable with the lead," Simms said. "That got them back in the game. They came out with more intensity and I didn't think we responded the way we should in the second half."

Nebraska extended its early lead with a 9-2 run, going ahead 20-11 on Turek's free throw that came just after a turnover by Lavender led to Charles Richardson's behind-the-back bounce pass to Simms for a layup.

The closest the Sooners got before halftime was 25-17, on Lavender's free throw with 3:52 left after he stole a pass. Nebraska then had an 8-2 spurt that included a pair of 3-pointers by Brian Conklin for his only points.

"Our freshmen, the bright lights and the moment, you could tell we weren't as aggressive as we needed to be in the first half," Sampson said. "In the second half, we just attacked. This team has been punched in the stomach so many times this year for different things, and they just keep ringing the bell."