Sooners win Bedlam

John Shinn
The Norman Transcript

March 06, 2008 12:57 am

— STILLWATER — Trying to figure out the Big 12 Conference this season has been a lot like trying to learn Spanish with a Japanese dictionary.
Nothing makes sense.
Wednesday night, Oklahoma limped up to Gallagher-Iba Arena without its best player — freshman forward Blake Griffin — to face an Oklahoma State team that had won five straight and was regarded as the hottest team in the conference.
So it made perfect sense for the Sooners to muscle their way to a 68-56 victory.
“People are always going to doubt us if we have injuries or are playing down a little bit,” center Longar Longar said after scoring 12 points.
There was little reason not to. OU (20-10, 8-7 Big 12) was coming off a 64-37 victory over Texas A&M, but that win had stopped a two-game losing streak and the Sooners’ two wins before that had come on last-second 3-pointers.
They’d scored a combined 90 points in lopsided losses at Texas and Nebraska in their last two road games.
But none of those factors seemed to matter Wednesday night.
The only thing that did was OU continuing to play tenacious defense and guard Tony Crocker getting so hot he had an orange glow.
The sophomore guard scored a career-high 25 points and pretty much dominated the game for the final 30 minutes.
“I really felt like he was going to have a good game,” OU coach Jeff Capel said. “I could tell how excited he was, but he had a focus. Once he got going we wanted to keep going to him.”
Crocker, who was 8-for-13 from the field and 5-for-5 from the 3-point range, hit a pair of treys in the final 70 seconds of the first half to help OU take a 32-30 halftime lead.
When OU opened the second half with a 7-0 run, it was pretty much their game to win.
“Those shots were real big going into the half,” Crocker said. “We got on a solid run, as coach would say.”
Oklahoma State (16-13, 7-8) was playing its biggest game of the season and it was senior night to boot. It basically needed to win out in the regular season to have any chance of getting an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament.
But OU’s lead never dipped under six points for the final 16 minutes. Obi Muonelo led OSU with 15 points. Byron Eaton and Marcus Dove both had 13.
The Cowboys shot a dismal 36.5 percent (19-for-52) from the field and never mounted a threatening run in the second half.
“We just got out-toughed and out-played, and I am embarrassed,” Dove said.
The “Rowdiest Arena in America” was sedate most of the night. OU answered every salvo with the basket or the defensive stop it needed.
Point guard Austin Johnson added 11 points, but more importantly, took care of the ball. OU only had 10 turnovers, but only five came from the backcourt.
By the time Crocker hit a pair of free throws with 3:16 left to put OU up 62-49, Gallagher-Iba Arena was about half full. All that was left was for the final minutes to tick away.
The Sooners’ bench was in full celebration mode by then.
“No one really thought we could win without Blake, but our guys really showed a determination that we could,” OU coach Jeff Capel said.
And OU’s future became considerably brighter.
Conventional wisdom was saying if the Sooners could finish the season with a .500 record in the conference, they’re a virtual lock to get an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament.
OU’s currently tied for fourth in the conference with Baylor and Texas A&M. The Sooners hold the tiebreaker with both teams and would enter next week’s Big 12 tournament as the fourth seed if play ended Wednesday night.
It doesn’t. The Sooners face Missouri at Lloyd Noble Center Saturday. If they win, they’ll lock up the fourth seed and in all likelihood cement an NCAA Tournament berth.
All of it can happen, because of what OU did Wednesday night.

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