“A lot of people were saying that Saint Joseph’s was supposed to upset us,” Griffin said. “It kind of gave us some fire and to win it feels even better.”

The Sooners had one of their best shooting games of the season, hitting 57.1 percent (24-for-42) from the floor and going 18-for-26 from the free-throw line.

Longar finished with 14 points and Griffin added 12. Austin Johnson added 10 points to go along with five of the Sooners’ 14 assists.

Still, they had to hold off a furious second-half charge to advance.

The Hawks (21-13) scored on seven straight possessions to cut their deficit to 65-61 on Ahmad Nivins’ basket with 3:16 left.

Rod Ferguson led Saint Joseph’s with 21 points. Nivins added 14 and Darrin Govens tossed in 12.

“We knew they would make a run, but we stuck together, kept everyone on the same page and kept battling,” Longar said.

The Sooner center had a dunk and Griffin followed with a pair of baskets to lift OU’s lead back up to eight points with 2 minutes to go and Saint Joseph’s didn’t get much closer.

“We feel good about this, but we’re not satisfied,” Capel said. “We have another good team coming in here on Sunday.”

The Sooners face third-seeded Louisville, which topped 14th-seeded Boise State Friday night, at 4 p.m. Sunday for a berth in the Sweet Sixteen.

John Shinn

366-3536

jshinn@normantranscript.com