Tony Crocker elevated his game to carry the Sooners
to a 68-56 win over O-State Wednesday night.
Tony Crocker may have missed the exclamation point dunk at the end of the game but he still got his message across. With Blake Griffin recovering from surgery on his right knee someone was going to have to put the Sooners on their back and carry them to a Bedlam win in Stillwater. The most likely candidate to do that was Tony Crocker and he more than picked up the slack in a performance that netted him a career high 25 points leading the Sooners to a 68-56 win over Oklahoma State.
Crocker's dribble penetration and 5-5 shooting from beyond the arch opened things up inside for Longar Longar to score 12 points. Austin Johnson also helped the offensive charge with 11 points including three big treys of his own.
Oklahoma followed their game plan to perfection both offensively and defensively. They got productive minutes from all of their guards, all of them scored, and they took what they could inside with Taylor Griffin and Longar Longar.
Defensively, they may not have defended the perimeter the same way they did in Norman because OSU seemed to have some open shots but fortunately they didn't fall. Oklahoma did pressure the ball well forcing the Cowboys to turn the ball over 13 times and the Sooners also had 7 steals and 2 blocked shots. Even without his star player on the floor Jeff Capel clearly out coached his counterpart Sean Sutton.
This win takes Oklahoma off the bubble and puts them in the NCAA tournament at around an 8th seed but they will now be playing to protect that or even move up. It is imperative for the Sooners to close out the season with a home win over Missouri on Saturday to give the 21 regular season wins and a first round bye in the conference tournament.