By Owen Canfield
The Associated Press

Oklahoma guard Quannas White (10) makes a pass while teammate Jozsef Szendrei (42) screens Kansas forward Wayne Simien (23). (AP photo) | ZOOM |

NORMAN, Okla. - Kansas coach Roy Williams figures his team had it coming. Riding a seven-game winning streak and alone at the top of the Big 12 standings, the sixth-ranked Jayhawks fell behind by as many as 32 points Sunday in a 77-70 loss to No. 5 Oklahoma.

"We haven't been playing as well recently as we need to play, but fortunately we've gotten by," Williams said. "It caught up with us today."

Did it ever.

The Jayhawks (20-6, 10-2) missed 17 of their first 20 shots on the way to a 21-point halftime deficit, then scored only one point in the first 41/2 minutes of the second half as Oklahoma (18-4, 10-2) opened a 59-27 lead.

Kansas staged an impressive rally over the final 151/2 minutes to get within five points in the final 30 seconds, but Oklahoma held on for its 36th straight home victory, the longest streak in the nation.

Williams dismissed the comeback as a case of one team relaxing after the game was out of hand.

"We did have some opportunities, but again, we're not in the same league with Oklahoma," he said.

In other games involving ranked teams Sunday, it was: No. 2 Kentucky 70, No. 19 Mississippi State 62; No. 10 Wake Forest 75, Virginia 71; and No. 15 Syracuse 76, Michigan State 75.

Hollis Price and Quannas White each had 19 points for the Sooners and the guards got plenty of help.

Center Jabahri Brown scored seven points and blocked two shots in eight minutes of playing time, before getting knocked out with a concussion midway through the first half. Little-used Jozsef Szendrei, playing 23 minutes because of an injury to Brown and foul trouble that handcuffed Johnnie Gilbert, had 11 rebounds. De'Angelo Alexander came off the bench to score 12 points and Ebi Ere had 11.

"We're kind of ascending right now, which is a good thing this time of the year," Oklahoma coach Kelvin Sampson said.

Kirk Hinrich scored 21 points, Wayne Simien had 17 and Nick Collison had 15 points and 14 rebounds for Kansas, although Collison was just 5-of-18 from the field.

The Sooners took control early by hitting their shots and controlling the backboards at both ends of the floor. White had three 3-pointers and Price had two as Oklahoma went 6-of-10 from behind the arc in the first half.

"It's not many times we play that good - we played good on defense and we were knocking down shots," Price said. "We did a great job of scoring early in the game and early in the second half."

The Sooners had a 10-3 lead in the first five minutes, stretched it to 17-6 with 11:30 remaining and went on to lead by as many as 21.

"Oklahoma's team defense is extremely impressive, and their team offense gets the ball to the guys who should get the shots, and those guys take them and make them," Williams said.

Kansas got several good looks early that didn't fall. Collison was 1-for-9 in the first half and Hinrich made just one field goal in the first 15 minutes.

"In the first half not only were we not in the same building with them, we were not even in the same league," Williams said.

In the second half, a 3-pointer by Keith Langford with 15:26 remaining started a 21-5 run that got the Jayhawks to 64-48. The Sooners led 70-54 before Kansas scored seven straight to make it 70-61 with 2:47 to play.

Price came up with one of game's biggest shots, a leaner over Hinrich that stopped the Kansas run and gave Oklahoma a 72-61 with 2:13 remaining.

Price later missed two free throws - he had made 36 in a row before that - and White missed two with 54 seconds left and Oklahoma leading 72-66.

Collison missed from in close with 42 seconds left and the Jayhawks turned it over six seconds later when an alley-oop pass from Aaron Miles to Collison banged off the rim.

White followed with a free throw for a 73-66 lead, and a shot by Collison with 22 seconds remaining was as close as Kansas got.

The record for biggest deficit overcome to win a game is 32 points by Duke against Tulane on Dec. 30, 1950. The Blue Devils were down 54-22 late in the first half before winning 74-72.

Kansas is the last team to win in Norman, in January 2001. But Oklahoma has won three of the past four meetings, including twice in the Big 12 tournament.

"Our program, from a consistency standpoint, we're getting pretty good," Sampson said. "Kansas has set a standard for this conference and will continue to do so. But at the same time, Oklahoma basketball is getting pretty good."