Texas A&M Texas A&M/Oklahoma Oklahoma Men's College Basketball recap on ESPN

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) -- Oklahoma's coach and players say the Sooners (No. 19 ESPN/USA Today, No. 22 AP) weren't looking ahead to Saturday's game against No. 5 Kansas.

It just looked that way.

The Sooners, after falling behind early, used a handful of short runs to take control and beat Texas A&M 78-65 Tuesday night.

Aaron McGhee scored 24 points and Hollis Price had 17 for the Sooners (12-2, 1-1 Big 12), who were coming off a 20-point loss at Iowa State. A small and quiet crowd never did get revved up, and 61 free throws helped contribute to the lack of atmosphere.

"I thought our effort was good," coach Kelvin Sampson said. "We took sort of a treadmill approach tonight. I thought we were working hard, but I'm not sure how much we were getting done at times."

Texas A&M (6-8, 0-2) shot 47.7 percent from the field, a big improvement from its 28 percent effort in a loss to Kansas State over the weekend. But the Aggies had 21 turnovers compared with just nine assists, and as a result couldn't sustain their comebacks.

"You want to put yourself in a chance, especially on the road, to win the ball game," coach Melvin Watkins said. "We had our chances. It was a situation where we didn't hit the free throws a couple times.

"We came up a little short, but our effort was surely there. Let's build on that."

Oklahoma made six of its seven 3-pointers in the second half, including one by McGhee and one by Kelley Newton during an 11-2 run that gave the Sooners a 51-38 lead with 15 minutes to play.

Bernard King, who came in averaging 18 points but didn't even take a shot in the first half, made three 3-pointers in a three-minute span to help pull the Aggies within 60-54 with 9:42 remaining. Texas A&M had a chance to cut it to 60-56, but Keith Bean missed two free throws, then Tim Heskett and McGhee hit 3-pointers to push Oklahoma's lead to 12 with 8:25 to play.

The Aggies got no closer than seven points thereafter.

"That's why they call them free," Watkins said. "You've got to take advantage of those in the closing moments."

King finished with 17 to lead the Aggies, who dropped to 1-14 all time against Oklahoma.

Texas A&M took advantage of sloppy play by Oklahoma to take an 18-10 lead nine minutes into the game.

The Sooners played with more intensity the rest of the way and did a better job protecting the ball. After committing seven turnovers in the first 10 minutes, they had eight the rest of the game.

"I don't think we were looking ahead," said McGhee, who was 10-of-12 from the foul line. "We just came out, and we weren't focusing as hard as we should have. The second half we picked it up a little bit. We can play a lot better."

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