By John Shinn
It wasn’t pretty for Oklahoma Thursday night. The Sooners were bruised, battered and even belted below the belt by USC at Lloyd Noble Center. Somehow, they figured out a way to stay unbeaten with a 73-72 victory over the Trojans.
Blake Griffin scored 25 points and Austin Johnson added 17 to help the sixth-ranked Sooners improve to 7-0.
Blake Griffin’s night was expected. The All-American scored at least 20 points for the seventh straight game. Johnson’s wasn’t, especially by the Trojans (5-3). They took a gamble and didn’t guard Johnson in the opening minutes. He was free to shoot whenever he got the ball. As long as he didn’t drive into the paint, USC ignored him.
The Trojans had used the strategy before. They did the same thing last season when the teams met in Los Angeles. OU’s David Godbold was left alone and the strategy worked. The Sooners couldn’t hit from the outside and USC had an extra defender to drape on Griffin.
It didn’t work a second time.
The Trojans jumped out on a 9-0 run to start. Then Johnson scored 11 of OU’s first 13 points on a trio of 3s and a driving layup.
The Sooners took their first lead on an alley-oop dunk by Griffin with a little over 14 minutes left in the first half and never trailed past the midway point in the opening half.
Johnson was only 4-of-23 from 3-point range entering the game. He went 3-for-7, but was 7-of-12 from the field.
“We took a calculated risk early in the game by not guarding Austin Johnson, forcing him to take shots and keeping the ball out of Blake Griffin’s hands,” USC coach Tim Floyd said. “Then he made us pay.”
OU coach Jeff Capel was expecting something like that to happen. The Sooners spent three days working against defenses designed to limit Blake Griffin’s touches.
“Him making those shots kind of got them out of that defense and allowed our offense to flow a little bit better when we really executed,” Capel said. “He was big for us tonight.”
Blake and Taylor Griffin were, too.
Blake Griffin scored 11 of his points after being hit in the groin by USC’s Leonard Washington with a little less than 14 minutes in the game. Washington was ejected after the referees watched the replay.
“What started it was on the play before I got bumped from behind and kind fell on top of him,” Blake Griffin said. “When I was coming down the court I saw him and I kind of figured it was going to happen.”
It was the first of two flagrant fouls the Trojans were called for. The other was by Daniel Hackett when he dragged Cade Davis to the floor to break up a lay up.
“It’s a matter of opinion and a judgment call,” Floyd said, “and those guys (the referees) have good judgement.”
Taylor Griffin added 10 points and nine rebounds.
Dwight Lewis led the Trojans with 25 points. Taj Gibson added 12 points and DeMar DeRozan added 10. USC shot 50 percent (25-for-50) from the field and were 8-for-11 from 3-point range.
On just about any other night it would have been enough to win.
The Sooners shot 46.2 percent (24-for-52) and were 7-for-21 from 3-point range. They even got outrebounded by nine.
“We found a way to pull out a win,” Capel said. “We are pleased with the win, not necessarily how we played, pleased to be 7-0.”
John Shinn
366-3536
jshinn@normantranscript.com
