It was a battle for the ages, two powerhouse teams, with one spectacular play after another, or not so much. In a game between the two worst teams in the Big 12, OU was able to come out on top and salvage a little bit of pride with a 83-74 win over the Red Raiders. In all seriousness, this could have easily been a game that OU came out flat for and the fact that they didn't, despite getting down seven very early, I think is both a good sign for the team and the coach. Now I've been pretty hard on Coach Capel, but having his team ready to play in a game like this (meaning of little importance other than simple pride) is something I'm taking as a good sign.
It took OU 3+ games to get a lead in a Big 12 game, man is that depressing to type, but they showed despite the lack of familiarity with the feeling that they were capable of playing with said lead. OU took a seven point lead into the half and never surrendered the scoring advantage for the remainder of the game. The Sooners were lead by senior Cade Davis and his 25 points. Davis was much more active on the offensive end than we seen in recent games and despite some early struggles, his shot warmed up in the second half allowing him to go 4-8 from three point range and hit some big shots for OU. OU also got a very nice all around performance from Andrew Fitzgerald, 20 points, five rebounds, three steals, three blocks, and two assists. In fact the entire OU starting lineup posted double digit scoring performances (Pledger 14, Blair, 11, and Clark 11), which even without researching I'm quite confident in stating that was the first time all year that's happened.
Almost every starter played over 30 minutes (Blair played 29, more due to foul trouble), so Capel still isn't really using his bench which has always been a criticism of mine. I'm just not sure how these kids develop if he doesn't give them a chance to do so in the actual games, but after what is sure to be a rare conference win I'm not going to turn this into a negative post. So congrats on the win last night Sooners and hopefully this will build some confidence and we can go out and shock some people. Because we're almost assured every night that our opponent will under estimate us, so if our Sooners are able to capitalize on that fact maybe we'll sneak out a couple more victories than we expected.
The men will play their next game this Saturday @ 12:30pm (central) in Norman against a much better than expected Colorado team. The Buffs did lose last night on the road against Nebraska, but prior to that were playing about as well as anyone in the Big 12. So OU will have to be ready to come out and play good defense against a CU team that features a couple dynamic offensive players. BOOMER SOONER!
Some highlights in case anyone out there didn't get to see the game.
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