After the fans had filed out of Lloyd Noble Center Monday night, the adrenaline from Oklahoma’s 64-61 victory over Oklahoma State began wearing off.
It was replaced by a sense of relief.
The Sooners, who improved to 15-5 overall and 3-2 in the Big 12 Conference, knew they’d just won their third straight game, yet it was far from their best showing.
The first half was the difference between being able to win going away and having to scratch out a win in the final minute.
“I challenged our guys at halftime,” OU coach Jeff Capel said. “I thought they out-toughed us, I felt they were hungrier than us.”
The Cowboys, who lost their fifth straight game, gave that impression. They were the team that went nearly five minutes without getting off a shot and still went into the locker room with a five-point lead.
They were a team that only got nine points from their three leading scores — James Anderson, Marcus Dove and Terrel Harris, but still had a chance to win in the final minute.
Allowing Obi Muonelo to score 25 points and Byron Eaton to pour in 18 was disappointing to the Sooners.
“They had a lot of momentum going into halftime,” said Taylor Griffin, who scored a team-high 20 points. “Obi Muonelo played an incredible first half and I don’t think we were guarding their guards as well as we could.”
OU began the second half on a 14-2 run. After taking the lead on a Taylor Griffin dunk with 18 minutes remaining, the Sooners never trailed again.They never really separated themselves either.
Going 23-for-36 from the free-throw line was a big reason OU had to wait for a huge three-point play from Blake Griffin in the final minute to get some breathing room. OSU stayed in the game by going a perfect 17-for-17 from the line.
It was the third straight game the Sooners have struggled from the free-throw line. They went 8-for-16 against Baylor and 8-for-14 against Texas Tech.
Four of OU’s five conference games have been decided by six points or less. The margin for error doesn’t figure to increase. But there’s a reason the Sooners have been able to compensate for their deficiencies.
“Confidence,” Taylor Griffin said.
The Sooners have exuded it in their last three games. They’ve stepped up and gotten baskets and stops in the last minute to win critical games. Monday night was another case.
“Overall, we played well enough to win. We had guys step up and hit some big shots,” Blake said.
Still, allowing an opponent to hang around is never a good idea.
OU is at No. 23 Texas A&M; (16-4, 2-3) Saturday and hosts No. 10 Texas (16-3, 3-1) a week from today. Win those two games and all the talk will be about reaching the NCAA Tournament and what seed the Sooners might earn.
But that’s going to take shoring up the deficiencies that allowed Oklahoma State to remain close Monday night.
John Shinn
366-3536
jshinn@normantranscript.com
OU Sports
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Jerry Laizure
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