No. 4 Oklahoma 70, Baylor 57

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) _ Even though Oklahoma had beaten Baylor 14 consecutive times, Kelvin Sampson knew his fourth-ranked Sooners were potentially vulnerable Wednesday night. <br><br>He was right. <br><br>Oklahoma

Thursday, February 7th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) _ Even though Oklahoma had beaten Baylor 14 consecutive times, Kelvin Sampson knew his fourth-ranked Sooners were potentially vulnerable Wednesday night.

He was right.

Oklahoma had to shake off a lackluster first-half performance that included a six-minute scoring drought to beat the Bears 70-57.

``Honestly, I thought we were a little sluggish from the Texas game,'' Sampson said, referring to a win over the Longhorns on Saturday. ``That overtime was tough on us. I could see it (Tuesday) in practice.''

Aaron McGhee led Oklahoma (18-3, 7-2 Big 12) with 23 points and Jason Detrick provided a key spark off the bench with 18 points.

Baylor has not beaten the Sooners since 1977-78, when current Bears coach Dave Bliss was head coach at Oklahoma.

``Aaron and Jason, along with (Daryan) Selvy, really carried us tonight,'' Sampson said. ``We were dragging a little and Jason did a great job in the first half, especially providing us with some energy on the offensive end.''

Detrick scored 14 points in the first half for the Sooners, who shot 36 percent from the field (11-of-31) and went six minutes without scoring as the Bears (13-9, 3-6) cut a 15-point deficit to 33-26 at halftime.

McGhee took over in the early moments of the second half, scoring 10 points in a 16-8 run that helped the Sooners re-establish a double-digit lead. He connected on all five of his field goal attempts and finished with 16 points in the second half.

``McGhee is a tough guy inside. He has become a real go-to guy for them,'' Bliss said. ``McGhee can dominate a game, and you saw a little of that tonight.''

Five Sooners finished with at least six rebounds as Oklahoma owned a 42-24 edge on the glass. McGhee led the way with eight rebounds, while Selvy finished with 10 points and six rebounds.

``The two areas I thought we were really good tonight, our defense was outstanding and we did a good job of rebounding,'' Sampson said.

Matt Sayman and Wendell Greenleaf each had 15 points for the Bears (13-9, 3-6), who cut the lead to eight points on several occasions, but got no closer the rest of the way. Lawrence Roberts added 13 points for Baylor, which has not beaten the Sooners since the 1977-78 season.

Hollis Price, who came into the game averaging 18.1 points to lead the Sooners, tied a season-low with six points on 3-of-12 shooting.