Oklahoma’s Hollis Price made nine three-pointer’s and scored 31 points to lead the No. 5 Sooners to a 70-60 victory over Iowa State Saturday.

Price, the preseason Big 12 Player of the Year, carried his team through a furious ISU run in the second half and hit several crucial baskets to end any momentum Iowa State had gained. He made shots with clear looks and he drained two with Jake Sullivan’s hand in his face.

“There were a lot of times that happened,” ISU head coach Larry Eustachy said. “You see it in the NBA, when a guy gets going and it doesn’t really matter who’s guarding him or how. I think he was just in one of those Michael Jordan zones. He’s a tremendous talent.”

After a three from Sullivan cut the Oklahoma lead to 12 points with 12 minutes left the second half, Price buried a trey to bump the lead back up to 14 points. Sullivan made a leaning shot in the lane for Iowa State on its next possession, but Price came right back to nail another three from the left wing. Sullivan slumped his shoulders and gave a look of disbelief.

“He hit two back-to-back where I thought I was right there, where he just had a step-back fade-away three,” Sullivan said. “They went in and I was just like ‘wow.'”

Despite the onslaught by Price, the Cyclones battled back as the clock dipped under seven minutes remaining. Sullivan and freshman Adam Haluska led Iowa State on a 13-2 run, capped off by a three-pointer from Haluska, to make it 58-53 Oklahoma.

With most of the 13,058 in attendance on their feet and creating eardrum-popping noise, Price burned Iowa State yet again with another three-point basket.

Two minutes later, he made his sixth three of the half to give the Sooners a commanding 68-54 lead. Price finished 10-of-18 from the floor and 9-of-16 from behind the arc.

“He had an unbelievable night shooting,” Sullivan said. “You don’t hear of people shooting 16 threes in a game too many times. You have to really be feeling it to do that.”

Iowa State was able to lock down Price’s backcourt teammate Ebi Ere, who came into the game averaging 17.5 points per contest. With Haluska handling most of the defense against him, Ere had just five points on 1-of-10 shooting. Kevin Bookout and Quannas White picked up the load for Oklahoma (11-3, 2-1 Big 12), chipping in with 16 and 11 points, respectively.

Sullivan was hounded by an intense Oklahoma defense and was held scoreless on just two shots in the first half as Oklahoma took a 10-point halftime lead. He came back to lead the Cyclone scoring attack with Haluska. Both had 13 points and each made three three-point shots.

Iowa State (10-4, 0-3) suffered a 29-point setback against Kansas in its first conference game and fell to Texas last Saturday on the road. Despite the losing streak, Sullivan said the fact that his team has been able to cut into huge leads in the last two games gives him hope for the future.

“Now we just have to take it that next step when we’re on a roll like that,” Sullivan said. “It was a great effort by us to get back in the game. Just closing it out is something we have to work on and try to get better at.”

Haluska said the loss can still build confidence for the Cyclones. He said the team realizes its youthfulness and inexperience.

“[Oklahoma] is a great team — a top-ten team, and we played right with them,” Haluska said. “We kind of slipped a little bit in the first half and had to make up for it in the second half, but we’re a good team and we’re going to keep our heads up.”

Eustachy, who has become known as ‘Dr. Doom’ in his five years as head coach, was also optimistic after the game. Eustachy said his team’s performance was a vast improvement.

“This was a team that had lots of guys back from its Final Four team,” Eustachy said. “I think we’ve made some tremendous strides since the first game in the league.

“Everything’s about where it should be. This certainly wasn’t the Kansas game.”