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November 18, 2009

Sooners tested, win

By John Shinn

Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel was sweating early Tuesday night. His team had a bad practice the day before. He watched a couple upsets on television leading up to tipoff against Louisiana-Monroe.

The Warhawks were primed to add the 17th-ranked Sooners to that early casualty list.

The Sooners finally got the message in the second half and pulled away for a 72-61 victory at Lloyd Noble Center, but it was far from their finest night.

"There was a great lesson for this team, especially for our new guys to understand, that we can't just turn it on," Capel said. "There are very few people in the world who are good enough to just turn it on. Usually guys that can don't do it."

OU (2-0) was lethargic throughout the game before finally finding a winning groove midway through the second half.

Willie Warren scored 24 points to lead the Sooners, but it wasn't a performance that was to his liking.

"Turning the ball over (OU had 13) is just limiting our opportunities to get points on the board," Warren said. And also, we need to be able to get stops. I feel like the game was a little bit too close even though we pulled it out towards the end."

The Sooners trailed by as many as eight in the first half and were in a tie game with 14 minutes left.

It was Warren, Tony Crocker and Cade Davis who paved the way for the late run.

Warren is OU's best player, but Crocker and Davis are the veterans. They played like it when it was needed.

Crocker finished with 13 points with eight coming in the second half. Davis added nine and was a bigger factor on the defensive end with three rebounds and two steals.

"Cade Davis gave us a huge, huge lift," Capel said. "He was everywhere. He was talking and his leadership out on the floor and energy out on the floor picked all of us up."

The Sooners shot 47.7 percent (22-for-41), but were just 8-for-22 in the first half.

The Warhawks shot 45.5 percent (25-for-55). They were in the game until guard Tony Hooper, who scored a team-high 17 points, fouled out with 4 minutes to go.

It was the first time OU's been in a tight game with a team that includes four freshmen in an eight-man rotation.

Those youngsters made everything look easy in Saturday's opener. Crocker, a senior, and Davis, a junior, took a backseat to freshmen Steven Pledger and Andrew Fitzgerald in the season opener. Davis only played 7 minutes Saturday. Crocker was on the floor for just half the game in the opener.

Outside of point guard Tommy Mason-Griffin, who had nine points and five assists, the freshmen struggled Tuesday.

Tiny Gallon pulled down 10 rebounds, but had just three points after getting into second-half foul trouble. Steven Pledger had eight points, but was 2-for-5 from 3-point range. Fitzgerald only played 8 minutes Tuesday and didn't have a point or a rebound.

They were flat and they Sooners nearly paid for it.

"We didn't come out of with the energy that we needed to come out with -- for whatever reason, I don't know," Capel said. "It took us getting down and punched in the mouth for us to start punching back."

John Shinn 366-3536 jshinn@normantranscript.com

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