By John Shinn
Oklahoma improved to 8-3 with Saturday's 80-79 victory over Northern Colorado. As far as Sooner coach Jeff Capel was concerned, however, that was the only thing that was close to improvement. How his team managed to eke out a win was a major disappointment.
"We didn't deserve to win. I feel bad for that Northern Colorado team, because they outplayed us and outcoached us and had their guys more ready to play," Capel said.
There was no hiding the frustration Saturday at Lloyd Noble Center. OU struggled early and often. The only reason it escaped with a victory was Cade Davis got extremely hot in the first half and Tony Crocker lassoed another double-double.
Davis, who finished with a game-high 25 points, scored all but five of those points before halftime. Nine came on a trio of 3-pointers in less than a minute that helped the Sooners erase an 11-point first-half deficit.
"We're an unselfish ballclub. I hit a few shots early and Tiny (Gallon) was finding me because he was getting doubled and just trying to make plays for the team," Davis said.
Davis also came up with a steal with less than 2 seconds remaining to seal the win.
Of course, it wouldn't have been needed if the Sooners hadn't missed the front ends of three 1-and-1s with less than a minute to play.
Those misses allowed the Bears (9-3) to make it very interesting at the end.
Capel's biggest issue Saturday was the fact that there was little else to the Sooners than Davis and Crocker, who scored 24 points, to go along with a game-high 10 rebounds.
Tiny Gallon finished with nine points and five rebounds, but failed to assert himself. Tommy Mason-Griffin added eight points to go along with four assists, but struggled to get himself or the Sooners running in an effective manner.
But the biggest letdown was Willie Warren. He played 26 minutes, but finished with a season-low four points. The sophomore had four assists, but they were negated by five of the Sooners' 12 turnovers.
"I'm tired of trying to figure him out," Capel said.
The All-American candidate went to the bench with 20 seconds left and OU desperately trying to hang onto the lead.
The Sooners managed to do it because time was on their side. The distance Northern Colorado had to make up was eight points in less than 40 seconds. But it seemed very possible until Davis came up with the ball as the final two seconds ticked off the clock.
Devon Beitzel led the Bears with 17 points and was one of five Northern Colorado players in double figures. Mike Proctor added 14, Taylor Montgomery tossed in 13 and Will Figures finished with 12.
The Sooners weren't nearly as spread out. Crocker and Davis scored over half of the Sooners points. The tandem was a combined 10-for-17 from 3-point range. The Sooners needed the long balls to get away with the victory. As a team, they were 14-for-29 from beyond the arc.
"I think we're a pretty good team, we've just got a lot more work to do," Crocker said. "We've got a lot of young guys. We've just got to do a better job of getting everybody on the right page and make sure everybody focuses and concentrates."
The game was OU's first in a week. It was coming off an overtime victory at Utah. Capel thought that road win would be something his team could build off of.
But he didn't feel that way late Saturday afternoon.
"This is a step backwards," he said. "Nothing associated with this game today is progress."
John Shinn 366-3536 jshinn@normantranscript.com
