Steven Pledger Scores 20 In The First Half Then Disappears, Sooners Lose 100-93 To Houston

by ccmachine on Nov 27, 2009 12:59 AM CST in Basketball Comment 4 comments

Michael Dinneen - AP

Freshman guard Steven Pledger was unstoppable in the first half of Oklahoma's game against Houston and then unfindable in the second as the Sooners fell 100-93 to the Cougars in their second game of the Great Alaska Shootout. After blistering the nets in the first half to the tune of 20 points Pledger didn't score in the second half until he hit an off balance three with 33 seconds left on the clock.

After Jeff Capel changed the starting lineup from Wednesday night's game to include Pledger, Cade Davis and Orlando Allen things were much different in the first half from the night before. Then in the second half it was very much like the night before with turnovers, one and done trips down the floor and inability to execute the offense.

The biggest stat of the night was the turnovers. OU turned the ball over 18 times while the Cougars coughed it up only 7 times. Next to that it was Oklahoma's perimeter defense that killed them again. Houston moved the ball against OU's zone with relative ease and connected on 12 of their 26 three point shots.

Oklahoma's youth and lack of experienced leadership continues to haunt them. This team doesn't seem to have the patience to run an offense and when things don't go according to plan they default to what comes natural to them and turn it into a one-on-one game which we all know by now doesn't work at this level.

Oklahoma now drops down into Saturday's fifth place game and will most likely face the host team, Alaska Anchorage Seawolves.

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Memo To Tiny Gallon

This isn’t high school, you actually need to run up and down the court on every possession.

Sorry to break it to you, but effort is required.

by dishingoutdimes on Nov 27, 2009 1:00 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

Memo To Tommy Mason-Griffin

It’s okay to slow the pace down and make sensible passes rather than trying to get on Sportscenter constantly. All you’ve done is probably make the “Not Top 10” about 5 times.

Also, if you jack up a three pointer as the point guard, try to at least draw rim.

by dishingoutdimes on Nov 27, 2009 1:01 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

Finally,

either this team is not very good, or they have no heart. It could very well be a combination of both.

I just hope we don’t get embarrassed by Alaska-Anchorage too.

Although, with this group of clowns, I could see them doing alley-oop dunks on AA, joking around, rubbing it in, etc. Tiny had a dunk in the second half where he lifted himself up using the rim. They were losing by like 6 or 8!

Hey Tiny, why don’t you use that extra time to run back down the court and play defense?

by dishingoutdimes on Nov 27, 2009 1:03 AM CST reply actions 0 recs