No. 5 Oklahoma 76, Nebraska 51

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) _ Oklahoma took a while to get going against Nebraska. Once they did, the fifth-ranked Sooners had no trouble winning their 37th straight home game. <br><br>With Hollis Price leading

Wednesday, March 5th 2003, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) _ Oklahoma took a while to get going against Nebraska. Once they did, the fifth-ranked Sooners had no trouble winning their 37th straight home game.

With Hollis Price leading a 25-0 run that spanned both halves, the Sooners won 76-51 Tuesday night and now can prepare for Saturday's showdown with No. 4 Texas.

Price scored 20 points, one of five Oklahoma players in double figures, as the Sooners kept pace with Texas, which beat Kansas State 74-60. The teams are tied for second place in the Big 12, and the winner will have a chance at tying Kansas for the regular-season title.

The sixth-ranked Jayhawks, who have a one-game lead, close the regular season at Missouri on Sunday.

``We said `Don't think about Texas until we get this thing done against Nebraska,''' Oklahoma coach Kelvin Sampson said. ``We're trying to go 13-3 in the league, and then `Go Missouri Tigers.'''

The Sooners (21-5, 12-3) made just four of their first 19 shots and Nebraska went 5-of-16. As a result, the score was only 12-12 with just under nine minutes to play.

Two free throws by De'Angelo Alexander at the 7:57 mark started a 9-0 run that gave Oklahoma a 21-12 lead. Nebraska committed five of its 20 turnovers during that three-minute span.

The score was 25-18 when Oklahoma took over for good.

Price, Quannas White and Ebi Ere all made 3-pointers during a 13-0 run that closed the half and gave the Sooners a 38-18 lead. In addition to his 3-pointer, Price had an assist on a fastbreak alley-oop dunk by Johnnie Gilbert, and had a steal and layup.

Price opened the second half with a short jumper to start a 12-0 run. Alexander had a 3-pointer and a layup and Price added another 3 before Jabahri Brown capped it with an alley-oop tip-in.

The Sooners made 13 straight shots at one point, including 10 in a row during their runs.

``They defended well, too,'' Price said of the Cornhuskers. ``We had open shots we should have made. We found a way at the end of the half to make easy baskets, and that's what we wanted to do. We wanted our big men to run and then kick the ball up to them.''

Alexander scored 15 points and Brown had 14 points and eight rebounds. Ere and Kevin Bookout each scored 10. White had 10 assists.

Andrew Drevo had 24 points for Nebraska (11-17, 3-12), which dropped to 0-7 on the road in the Big 12, getting outscored by an average of 21 points in those games.

``I thought they were much more aggressive than us and were rewarded for such,'' said Nebraska coach Barry Collier, who used four of his five timeouts in the first half.

Oklahoma only shot 43.5 percent from the field, but made eight 3-pointers compared with just one for Nebraska. Drevo was 11-for-17 but the rest of his teammates combined to go 10-for-36.

``We just came out and played defense the way we know how to play defense,'' said Brown, who had four of Oklahoma's seven blocks. ``Not take anything away from Nebraska because they're a good team, but we came out and everything clocked on defense.''

Now comes Texas, a team the Sooners had beaten eight straight times before the Longhorns won 67-61 in Austin on Feb. 10. It's also the final home game for Oklahoma's four seniors including Price, a four-year starter who is seventh on the school's career scoring list.

``Hollis said it's going to be sad,'' Sampson said. ``It's not going to be sad, it's going be intense, because we're going to come to play.''