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November 16, 2009

SLIDESHOW: Sooners freshman star

By John Shinn

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Oklahoma knows it has a freshman class that will make an impact. But it wasn't expected to be this immediate.

It was the freshmen who stared in the 17th-ranked Sooners' 95-71 victory over Mount St. Mary's Saturday at Lloyd Noble Center Saturday.

Forward Tiny Gallon scored 18 points and pulled down 15 rebounds. Guard Steven Pledger scored a game-high 21 points and was 8-for-9 from the field. Forward Andrew Fitzgerald scored 14 points to go along with five rebounds. Point guard Tommy Mason-Griffin added 11 points and four assists.

For debuts, it would have been hard to imagine the Sooners coming up with something better.

"I thought our four freshmen were tremendous for an opening game. Their first college basketball game, for those guys to step up the way they did and all of them contribute and play very well, it speaks to how talented they are," OU coach Jeff Capel said. "And the thing about that is I think they still have such a huge ceiling to get better."

They were the difference against the Mountaineers, who were also playing their season opener. OU used an 18-7 run late in the first half during which Pledger scored 8 points. The run gave the Sooners a 49-36 lead at halftime.

With 15 minutes to go, Mount St. Mary came close at 55-50, but the freshmen keyed another run to help OU pull away.

"What (people) fail to realize is we have probably one of the most talented freshman classes in the country," OU guard Willie Warren said after scoring 15 points and handing out a career-high 11 assists. "So they're going to come out here and play ball, and they've shown me that I have nothing to worry about and that I can have someone to lean on when my shot isn't falling."

The Mountaineers were bent on not letting Warren beat them. From OU's first possession he was draped by two defenders every time he touched the ball. He turned the attention into easy baskets for teammates.

"I saw that in the first play of the game when we ran a ball screen. They hedged it all the way to half court, so I was like 'Oh yeah, I see what type of game it's going to be today,'" Warren said. "So when I penetrated, all the attention came to me and I got a couple easy dump-downs with Tiny. I'd sure like to see him dunk a couple of those, though."

Gallon got one dunk late in the game, but points weren't the biggest part of the freshman's game. Capel's been hammering the importance of rebounding to the 6-foot-9 forward since he arrived on campus back in June.

The emphasis has paid off. Gallon, who only played 22 minutes, helped OU dominate the paint. It finished the afternoon with 21-rebound edge on the boards.

"I just focus on rebounding and touching the ball whenever the guards give it to me," Gallon said.

The Sooners shot 45.1 percent (32-for-71). The Mountaineers were 27-for-62 from the field (43.5). They got off to hot start, hitting five of their first six shots, but cooled off considerably in the second half.

John Shinn 366-3536 jshinn@normantranscript.com

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