Oklahoma remained perfect on the basketball season Wednesday night but it wasn’t without a strong challenge from UAB. The Blazers came out shooting and used an aggressive defense to force 11 Sooner turnovers and limit Blake Griffin to 13 points.
OU looked totally out of sync in the first half and it seemed that most of their possessions ended in either a turnover or a missed shot. UAB was unbelievably strong on the boards and Oklahoma should have felt fortunate to only trail by 5 at the half.
Things didn’t seem to be going any different for the Sooners when Willie Warren picked up his 3rd foul just 8 seconds into the half but it really would be a different story. Jeff Capel made a genius halftime adjustment by inserting Cade Davis into the starting lineup. Davis had the hot hand from outside that allowed the Sooners to unleash the beast inside. For the game Davis connected four times from beyond the arch but also provided 4 rebounds and 4 assists that all came a crucial times.
It was the play of Davis that freed up Blake Griffin for 19 second half points. Oklahoma was able to match UAB’s physical play in the second half and eventually wore the Blazers down allowing the Sooners to end the game on a 17-5 run. We’ve now seen OU win a blowout (Miss. Valley State), a shootout (Davidson) and now an ugly physical brawl of a game.
Oklahoma won the battle of the boards (36-25) and shot 54% from the floor as opposed to UAB’s 40%. Up next for the Sooners is #10 Purdue in Friday’s championship game.
