No. 7 Oklahoma built a 21-point lead in the first half and then turned away a second-half surge to beat Iowa State 66-56 Saturday night for their first win in Ames since 2011.

OU (14-5, 9-4 in the Big 12) was scheduled to play at Kansas State (6-18, 2-13) Tuesday night.

The Sooners are scheduled to host Oklahoma State (14-6, 7-6) at 2 p.m. Saturday and then travel to Stillwater to play the second Bedlam game at 8 p.m. Monday. Those games could end the regular season although OU could reschedule games against Texas and Baylor due to postponements because of the Chinese coronavirus.

Oklahoma was supposed to host Texas on February 16 but that game was moved to February 17 due to the winter storm and then it was moved to February 18. Then it was postponed indefinitely.

No. 2 Baylor has 10 games canceled or postponed this season and six of those games were against opponents ranked in the Top 25. The Bears have had seven of 18 Big 12 games postponed and only one – against West Virginia – has actually been rescheduled.

Those opponents were: No. 1 Gonzaga; Nicholls State; No. 14 Texas (postponed); Tarlton; No. 13 West Virginia (postponed twice); TCU (postponed); No. 8 OU (postponed); No. 7 Texas Tech (postponed); and Oklahoma State (postponed).

The 2021 Big 12 Tournament will be March 10-14 in Kansas City, Missouri. In 2021, the tournament was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

OU coach Lon Kruger was happy with his team at the start of the Iowa State (2-16, 0-13) game and their play after the Cyclones took a one-point lead in the second half.

“It was a good response in terms of losing the lead and then widening it right back out,” Kruger said. “Not that we want to get ourselves in that position any more than we have to, but I thought guys maintained their poise.

“It’s a big challenge whenever games are postponed and you’re preparing to play Texas on Tuesday, and then Wednesday, and then all of a sudden we put that preparation aside and started preparation for Iowa State. The guys handled it well, they were really anxious to play.”

Austin Reaves led the Sooners with 20 points. His long three-point goal late in the game sealed the win.

“It’s a hard thing to do when a team has literally all the momentum, ,” Reaves said the lead evaporating. “When you can really call timeout, just huddle up and just get back to the game plan and get focus back – it’s big.”

Kruger credited Reaves for his leadership and play.

“He especially I thought got us off to a really good start,” Kruger said of Reaves. “I thought they did a good job of converting and distributing and getting others involved to open the ballgame. And then when the game was on the line, he went to the line and made free throws. He’s had a lot of good ballgames, and we needed another good one out of him today.”