Oklahoma
San Antonio vs. Oklahoma City, Final Score: Spurs outshot and out-defended by Thunder, 93-105
Oklahoma City (4-0), clamping down on a Spurs squad with its top-ranked defense, used an 18-2 run in the first quarter to stake itself to a comfortable lead that was not threatened in a 105-93 victory. The Thunder started white hot from three (14 first half makes), while many San Antonio forays stalled out deep in the paint with 2-3 defenders lurking nearby. Chet Holmgren got the better of his more heralded counterpart throughout much of the first half with 15 points and two blocks, while Victor Wembanyama had his worst output of the young season.
San Antonio (1-3) was led again by Jeremy Sochan (17 points and 9 rebounds) accompanied by grizzled veterans Harrison Barnes (18 points and 4 rebounds) and Chris Paul (14 points and 9 assists). The team let Wembanyama (6 points, 8 rebounds, and 3 blocks) down by not being able to find him in advantageous spots in the halfcourt, which was not helped by him getting bogged down by his own frustrations. Malaki Branham chipped in 15 points off the bench.
The Thunder were led by Holmgren (19 points and 5 rebounds) who paced four starters in double figures – Luguentz Dort (20 points and 6 rebounds), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (18 points and 5 assists), and Jalen Williams (12 points and 8 assists) — a group that thoroughly outplayed their counterparts.
The visitors had considerable difficulty getting through the lane amidst a sea of Thunder arms, and settled for jumpers with many of them clanging off the rim. Oklahoma City’s success from three allowed them to settle into the catbird seat. While the Spurs steadied themselves and kept OKC off the boards over the last two minutes of the first, they still ended a difficult opening frame down seven.
The Thunder (editor’s note: like a bad case of dysentery – JRW) made life difficult for San Antonio at one both ends, while shooting confidently and brazenly from distance in their halfcourt offense. The Spurs’ deficit ballooned to 19 before they found a veteran line-up that could somewhat deter the hopeful contenders. Chris Paul’s timely shooting staved off OKC running away with things, but the Thunder still went to the half up 59-44.
The Thunder started the second half by attacking the basket at-will. Holmgren tagged Wembanyama with an elbow to the face on a drive, and Harrison Barnes’ fadeaway brought San Antonio within 11. Behind Barnes and Paul, the Spurs managed to impressively win the quarter 26-23 despite Oklahoma City’s astounding success from distance.
Observations
- With the stirring Celtics / Pacers tilt spilling into overtime, the Spurs / Thunder telecast started with San Antonio up 10-7.
- OKC is forcing a turnover on one of every five possessions, per Zach Kram of The Ringer. They thusly generated countless deflections and steals in triumph tonight.
- Those SATX uniforms are pretty meh.
- With the Spurs being on the national airwaves again, we (well, mainly I) need to get used to the longer television timeouts.
- It’s these type of tough road games where Barnes needs to more forcefully assert himself on the offensive end – and he ended up doing that!
- I lost count of the times that Tim Legler and Dave Pasch commented on San Antonio’s suboptimal offense.
- This might have been the first game this season that felt a little too big for Stephon Castle.
- Victor Ease: Not sure how to feel about Wembanyama stationed on the free throw line (like Dirk Nowitzki used to). While he is able to see the floor well from that perch, he can’t punish the defense with that mid-range jumper yet.
- Sequence of the Game: After Zach Collins emphatically turned away Aaron Wiggin’s dunk attempt at the start of the second period, Malaki Branham’s connected from the wing.
- In a fast-paced opening handful of minutes, the Spurs briefly held a small lead. Jalen William’s steal of Paul’s crosscourt pass and breakaway dunk drew Pop’s ire. San Antonio had trouble converting its looks from the perimeter, while Holmgren hit two early ones of his own. As the Spurs’ field goal drought spanned nine attempts, OKC extended out to a 20-10 advantage. Zach Collins’ three and a spinning lay-up by Blake Wesley fended off an early blowout. The Thunder had the Spurs down 26-19 after one.
- San Antonio managed to get a pair of shot-clock violations on OKC late in the first and at the start of the second. Wembanyama tumbled to the floor with his defender, and Jalen Williams found a streaking Holmgren for a transition dunk. A visibly frustrated and possibly injured Wembanyama went straight to the locker room. Holmgren’s three after an inbounds turnover and Ajay Mitchell’s three put the Spurs down 19. After Holmgren inexplicably tried throwing himself a lob off the backboard, Paul hit a pair of threes to bring San Antonio within ten. Paul’s third three was answered very quickly by Jalen Williams and Luguentz Dort, and the Spurs were fortunate to be down only 15 at the break.
- OKC held a lay-up parade to start the second half to match their biggest lead at 19. Julian Champagnie encouragingly hit a corner three, and Barnes’ driving dunk brought San Antonio within two touchdowns. Dort’s second uncontested three of the frame put the Thunder up 19 again. Paul hit a patented mid-range jumper and found Sochan for an acrobatic lay-up. Barnes’ wing three brought the Spurs within eight as they mounted their first serious push. After San Antonio’s finest defensive stand of the game, Keldon Johnson’s three trimmed their deficit to seven.
- Malaki Branham’s bankshot three again brought San Antonio within seven to start the fourth, which ended up being the closest that they would get. No other Spurs could help Branham mount a comeback attempt in the stanza.
San Antonio heads west for a road SEGABABA against Lauri Markkanen and the Utah Jazz tomorrow night at 8:00 PM CDT.
Happy Halloween Pounders!
Costco is a trusted American retail brand with a cult-like following
Costco is a retail behemoth. Here’s more to know.
Contrary to popular belief, the internet did not kill retail and Oklahoma City is seeing an influx of new construction.
But a new retail survey shows a growing divide emerging between the success of newer shopping destinations and fading fortunes of those built in the age of disco balls and leisure suits.
Jim Parrack, who leads the retail division at Price Edwards, said the Oklahoma City metro at first glance is doing well compared to the national market in which rental rates are going up and new development is slowing amidst higher construction costs and rising economic uncertainty.
Large new retail properties in Oklahoma City include OAK, the mixed-use upscale development at Northwest Expressway and Pennsylvania Avenue, Grove Marketplace at NW 178 and Portland Avenue, and Rose Creek Plaza at NW 164 and May Avenue.
And a next-generation prototype Walmart Supercenter, meanwhile, is being built as part of Deercrest Marketplace at the corner of John Kilpatrick Turnpike and Rockwell Avenue. More announced retailers are moving forward in northwest Oklahoma City, including a Scheels store and a Crest Foods.
Legacy at Covell in Edmond is set to include some of the biggest names in retail and dining, including Whole Foods and a Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse. And multiple new developments continue in Norman, including construction of a large development anchored by a Target store.
“Retail in general is doing better than people tend to think,” Parrack told The Oklahoman. “There is a lot of negative news nationally. But even nationally, retail is doing better than people often give credit for mainly because people are still spending money.”
Nationally, he said, not a lot of retail construction is being seen, which has helped occupancy rates and landlords are able to raise rents and are “doing pretty well.”
“There has developed, over the past couple of years, what I would call good centers and then there are centers that have fallen off pace. The good centers are those that are newer and have mostly national tenants.”
Older locations seeing rent stagnating
Parrack identified Oklahoma City’s two power retail corridors where much of the growth is happening as those at Northwest Expressway and Pennsylvania Avenue, and along the Memorial Road corridor between Portland and Western avenues, which Parrack said has the highest concentration of retail in the city.
“The other locations are those that are older, maybe aren’t configured right and have more mom-and-pop tenants,” Parrack said. “The surprising part to me is the gap between the two has widened significantly. We’re seeing certain centers, like Classen Curve, get $50 to $60 a foot in rent. There are some small strip shopping centers in that same range. And we haven’t seen those kinds of rents here ever.”
Older centers, meanwhile, are seeing rents stagnating between $12 and $14 a foot.
“The discrepancy is very noticeable,” Parrack said. “A lot of the older centers in the ‘70s are in that older tier. Sometimes the markets have grown away from them. But sometimes the centers just get old; the ceilings are low and maybe their spaces are too deep. Something is wrong with them.”
The tenant mix also weighs in, Parrack said, with centers with mostly local retailers unable to compete with the newer, national-tenant anchored properties.
“The rents haven’t moved, so the landlords have a hard time paying for tenant improvements and the local tenants don’t have as much quality credit. It’s a cumulation of events that are holding those centers down.”
One example of a struggling retail center is French Market Mall, which the report shows was over 50% vacant at the end of 2025 even though it is on a high-traffic intersection of NW 63 and May Avenue.
The property started out in the 1970s as an enclosed mall adjoining a Woolco, Furr’s Cafeteria, Trust House Jewelers, an IGA grocery, a Hallmark shop and a drugstore.
The mall portion was later shut down and replaced with a Burlington store.
“At some point, a number of these older centers just need to be repurposed, whether that means torn down for a new center, or re-imagined, an example being Mayfair,” Parrack said. “Half of that center has been torn down and part was remodeled.”
Mayfair Village, built in 1948, was one of the city’s earliest suburban shopping centers. The retail hub was built along both sides of May Avenue between NW 47 and NW 48. Some pieces of the shopping center were torn down and replaced with new buildings, notably Mayfair Market, which made way for a CVS, and a nearby shopping strip that was torn down to make way for an Aldi grocery store.
An extensive rebuilding of the shopping center followed its 2020 purchase by Caleb Hill, Nick Preftakes and Mark Ruffin. They renovated some of the buildings and then cleared other sections that were then redeveloped as fast food restaurants and a gas station.
“More centers are going to have to be redone like that,” Parrack said.
Jason Little and Charles Lewis with SHOP Companies recently brokered a $17 million sale of four buildings that make up the heart of the reimagined Mayfair to a real estate investment arm of Humphreys Companies. He said the shopping center has just one vacancy — a Starbucks that closed as part of a national shutdown of some of its locations — and that lease continues.
When that lease transitions to a new tenant, Little said he expects the former Starbucks will lease for close to $50 a foot. He credits that price expectation to the efforts undertaken by Hill and Preftakes.
“You’re talking about an asset that when they acquired it had single digit rents,” Little said. “By bringing new construction and historic architecture together, they’ve been able to create something marketable.”
In other areas of town, Parrack said west Oklahoma City, more recently, has had the lowest vacancy rate, which he sees as a reflection of new housing in the area especially near Yukon and Mustang. He said Moore and Norman continue to thrive with little old retail and ongoing construction of new retail.
Parrack said the metro’s three malls are performing at different levels.
“Penn Square continues to do the best sales of any of the local malls. Simon owns it and Simons knows what they’re doing. But even at Penn Square there are some temporary tenants that Simon controls. And I think they realize that in competition with OAK they are needing to invest some money in the mall.”
Quail Springs Mall, meanwhile, is a step down in sales, Parrack said.
Sooner Fashion Mall in Norman is the smallest of the three, and like other smaller malls, is struggling.
“It shows with them in that they have more vacancy than the other two,” Parrack said. “It doesn’t help that they have a Sears that has been closed for all these years.”
Parrack does not expect the city to see another dying mall like Crossroads or Heritage Park anytime soon.
“The thing with malls is even when they die, they take forever to die,” Parrack said. “It’s kind of a gradual thing. Their business slacks off. They lose a couple of tenants. But all bigger retail centers have these tenants with co-tenancy clauses that if certain tenants leave or the occupancy goes below a certain level, then tenants can pay half rent or a percentage rent.”
Newer mixed-use developments like OAK, Chisholm Creek and The Half are being well received by the market, though Parrack notes The Half, leaning more toward entertainment than retail with a mix of offices and apartments, is less cohesive than the other two destinations.
“It’s hard to walk from one deal to another at The Half,” Parrack said. “It’s more of a destination with each of the tenants there. But it is in a great location. The people that are there do well. OAK is something we’ve never had before, and it’s the closest thing we have to Utica Square in Tulsa.”
The demise of brick-and-mortar retail prompted by Amazon is greatly exaggerated, Parrack said.
“The last holiday sales period saw 75% of sales being at brick-and-mortar stores,” Parrack said. “That percentage for holiday sales has held steady for a while and I think most of these retailers have figured out the optimal way for them to continue.”
Women’s Basketball
March 28, 2026
South Carolina vs. Oklahoma – Sweet 16 NCAA tournament extended highlights
March 28, 2026
Watch the highlights from No. 1 South Carolina and No. 4 Oklahoma’s matchup in the Sweet 16 of the 2026 women’s NCAA tournament.
SACRAMENTO, CA — Oklahoma women’s basketball is looking to advance to its first Elite Eight since 2010 when it faces South Carolina in the Sweet 16 on Saturday.
The No. 4 seed Sooners previously defeated the No. 1 seed Gamecocks 94-82 in overtime on Jan. 22.
OU has won nine of its last 10 games, including defeating Idaho in the first round of the Women’s NCAA Tournament and Michigan State in the second round.
The matchup will be a battle of two of the best offenses nationally as the Sooners rank fourth in scoring offense while South Carolina ranks third.
Here’s what you need to know ahead of OU’s Sweet 16 contest against the Gamecocks:
Watch Oklahoma vs South Carolina live with Fubo
When does Oklahoma play in March Madness? What time is Sooners basketball game vs South Carolina in NCAA women’s basketball tournament?
- Date: Saturday, March 28
- Time: 4 p.m. CT
- Location: Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California
How to watch Oklahoma vs South Carolina in NCAA Tournament: Time, TV channel, live stream
Oklahoma vs South Carolina airs on ESPN at 4 p.m. CT Saturday.
Streaming options include FUBO.
Oklahoma vs. South Carolina in NCAA Tournament score prediction
South Carolina 93, Oklahoma 81: The Sooners keep it competitive early behind Aaliyah Chavez. But the Gamecocks’ size and depth prove too much in the fourth quarter. Dawn Staley hasn’t lost in the Sweet 16 since 2019 and that won’t change Saturday.
Colton Sulley covers the Oklahoma Sooners for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Colton? He can be reached at csulley@oklahoman.com or on X/Twitter at @colton_sulley. Support Colton’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
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