Austin Johnson Keys Oklahoma’s Victory At Texas A&M

Even when Blake Griffin isn’t Oklahoma’s main scoring threat he can still beat you. The best game plan against the Sooners is to flood Griffin with pressure inside and force OU to beat you with someone else. It’s a solid plan unless one of Oklahoma’s other players has a game like Austin Johnson did and then you find out that by putting pressure on Griffin he’s beat you just by having to pay extra attention to him. On Saturday afternoon in College Station Texas A&M sold out to stop Blake Griffin and Austin Johnson reaped the benefits.

“We were doubling Griffin with the guards and that would leave someone open,” Texas A&M’s Josh Carter said. “Johnson seemed to be the one who was open today and he wasn’t missing.”

 A.J. led the team in scoring with 19 points (also game high) but also dished out a game high 7 assists. Johnson’s most critical moment came with just under two minutes left in the game. After A&M’s Donald Sloan cut Oklahoma’s lead to just 2 points Johnson quickly pushed it back to 5 with a three point shot and OU’s lead was never in jeopardy again as Johnson and Griffin hit their free throws on their way to a 69-63 win.

Blake Griffin still got his points (16) but was not allowed his usual double-double by only grabbing 6 rebounds. His brother, Taylor Griffin, was the only other player to score in double figures.