OU Basketball: Jeremiah Fears Hits Game-Winner as Oklahoma Beats Michigan

Jeremiah Fears — who turned 18 in October — should still be in high school. 

Instead, he’s hitting game-winning and-one 3-pointers for Oklahoma against ranked opponents.

Fears, a freshman guard, nailed a game-tying 3-pointer with 11.5 seconds remaining in the No. 14-ranked Sooners’ riveting 87-86 win over against No. 24 Michigan. Fears drew a foul on the shot and made the free throw to finish off an improbable rally, and the Sooners held on in the final seconds to stay unbeaten.

“Coach looked at me and told me to make a play,” Fears told ESPN after the game. “It means a lot, especially as a young player.”

After their impressive performance in the Jumpman Invitational, the Sooners are 11-0, which is their best start since the 2015-16 season.

Here are three takeaways from Oklahoma’s dramatic win:

Multiple times in the second half, Michigan looked like it would pull away. But the Sooners didn’t let that happen.

The Wolverines held 11-point leads twice in the half — once at the beginning, once in the middle of the half. And both times, OU cut into the lead.

The second time was substantial. Oklahoma cut slightly into the Michigan lead before going on a 9-0 run to take the lead for the first time since early in the first half.

Fears, despite his youth, showed veteran poise in the second half. The freshman led the team with 30 points on the night, and 20 of those came in the second half on 7-of-8 shooting.

“I felt good, just being able to help my team get the W,” Fears said. “A lot of people didn’t believe in us going into the game, and I think that motivated us in the game.”

In total, OU outscored Michigan 49-43 in the final 20 minutes. The Sooners trailed 43-38 at halftime.

While Oklahoma got the win, Michigan’s big men gave Oklahoma fits all night. The Wolverines scored 50 points in the paint; the Sooners scored just 28.

Michigan’s pair of centers, Vladislav Goldin and Danny Wolf, did most of the damage.

Goldin, a 7-foot-1 big man from Russia, entered as the Wolverines’ leading scorer and once again led Michigan on Wednesday. He finished the game with 26 points on 10-of-12 shooting and 10 rebounds.

Wolf also played a huge role, logging 15 points and 10 rebounds.

The Sooners did a better job defending Michigan’s backcourt, holding the Wolverines to a 14 percent clip on 3-pointers. But Oklahoma’s struggles against Goldin and Wolf show that there’s work to be done when preparing for opposing big men.

Wednesday’s win adds another quality victory to Oklahoma’s resume. The Sooners have now beaten six opponents from power conferences: Michigan, Providence, Arizona, Louisville, Georgia Tech and Oklahoma State.

Oklahoma is one of just five undefeated teams in NCAA Division I men’s college basketball, along with No. 1 Tennessee, No. 7 Florida, Drake and Utah State.

The Sooners’ hot start surpasses last year’s, when Oklahoma opened the season 10-0. It is Oklahoma’s best start since the 2015-16 season, when OU opened 12-0 and eventually reached the Final Four.

A 12-game winning streak isn’t enough to automatically get OU into the NCAA Tournament, which the Sooners haven’t done in Porter Moser’s tenure. The SEC is stacked, currently holding nine teams in the AP Top 25 poll.

But the hot start goes a long way in building a resume and garnering more national attention.

The Sooners will play just two more non-conference games — against Central Arkansas and Prairie View A&M at home — before beginning their first basketball season as an SEC squad.