By John Shinn
The Norman Transcript
March 15, 2008 07:48 pm
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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — In two regular-season meetings, Oklahoma guarded Texas well, but couldn’t score points. Saturday, in this season’s third meeting in the semifinals of the Big 12 tournament, the Sooners still couldn’t score and defending became a problem, too.
Failing to do either amounted to a 77-49 loss at Sprint Center.
“We needed to have a sense of urgency and I don’t think we did that,” OU center Longar Longar said. “That’s why we lost the game.”
The Sooners (22-11) knew they were fighting an uphill battle. Top-seeded Texas had won both regular-season meetings and the previous five contests between the bitter rivals for a reason.
The sixth-ranked Longhorns came to Sprint Center motivated by the belief a tournament title would vault them into a No. 1 seed for the NCAA Tournament.
Their pummeling of OU made for a strong case.
“Once they get rolling, they’re hard to stop,” Sooner forward Blake Griffin said.
The 28-point margin seemed odd considering OU led by as much as seven points in the first half and tied the game at 36-36 with a 7-0 run to start the second half.
But coupling baskets with stops was too difficult a chore for the Sooners.
Texas guard A.J. Abrams scored 24 points and was 7-of-12 from 3-point range. Two of those treys came right after OU had tied the game and kick-started an 18-4 run that helped Texas pull away.
Abrams, who entered the game averaging 15.8 points per game, was like a ticking time bomb.
He scored 22 points to help the Longhorns claim a 64-54 victory over the Sooners Feb. 6 in Norman, but scored just five points in the game at Texas Feb. 23.
A late-season shooting slump was the cause. But he broke out of it against the Sooners.
“When they’re making shots and 3s like they were, it makes them extremely tough to defend,” OU coach Jeff Capel said.
Texas shot 50 percent (27-of-54) and got 17 points from D.J. Augustin and 13 from Damion James.
Blake Griffin led OU with a game-high 20 points and 13 rebounds and was a dominant force on both ends of the floor. But OU struggled to get production from anyone else.
Tony Crocker added 11 points, but the Sooners hit just 32.8 percent (20-of-63) from the floor and were a woeful 4-of-23 from 3-point range.
“We got some great looks, we just didn’t knock them down inside; some shots right there at the 3-point line,” Capel said. “When you are playing against a really good team like Texas you have to be able to knock more of those down than we did.”
OU not being able to wasn’t a surprise. It failed to shoot better than 34 percent in all three meetings with Texas this season.
Of course, OU won’t have to worry about playing the Longhorns again unless it makes a deep run in the NCAA Tournament. Texas will try to bolster its case for a No. 1 seed in the conference title game at 2 p.m. today.
The Sooners will also find out who their next opponent is today. The NCAA Tournament field will be announced a 5 p.m. OU is considered a lock for an at-large berth.
The only thing it could have done in Kansas City, Mo., was bolster its seed. It’s doubtful eking out a 54-49 victory over last-place Colorado and being trounced by the Longhorns did much for them.
Still, OU knows it has at least one more game to play.
“After not playing very well as a team (Friday) and then losing the way we did today, you know, it’s disappointing,” OU forward Taylor Griffin said. “But at this point in the season, you’ve got to move on quickly. If you don’t your next game could be your last. So, yet, it is disappointing. But, you know, we’ve still got a big opportunity coming up.”
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