Dec. 18, 2005
Box Score
The eighth-ranked Oklahoma Sooners overcame a solid defensive
effort by the Southern Jaguars that kept the Sooners under 40% shooting, to
post a 68-54 victory at the Lloyd Noble Center, on the Oklahoma campus in Norman,
OK.
What helped OU overcome its less-than-stellar shooting was
a strong rebounding edge, particular on the offensive end where the Sooners
corralled a season-high 27 offensive rebounds.
"We stress the importance of boxing out and not giving
teams second shots, but we just haven't done that well at it this year,"
Southern coach Rob Spivery said.
"I think what they did was hurt us with rebounding, particularly
in the first half. We did a good job defending the first shot, but they are
big and strong -- they are just big and physical inside."
"The way we play the zone, it's a match-up zone,
so everyone is responsible for a man. They're in a box-out position anyway,
but we're just not doing a very good job at this point. We've got
to get better in those areas."
OU was able to get the Southern Jags in early foul trouble,
as three SU big men went to the bench before halftime with two fouls.
The Sooners' size inside continued to hamper the Jaguars in
the second half. Gray and Bookout scored six straight points for OU to start
the half, and managed to get Southern in foul trouble with the Jaguars collecting
their seventh team foul with 14:41 still remaining in the game.
This essentially signaled the death knell for Southern. With
many of their big men in foul trouble, the Jaguars had to remain in a zone defense,
killing any chance they had of matching the Sooners scoring in the second half.
The Jaguars never managed to cut their deficit under single
digits for the remainder of the contest.
"We just couldn't match up with them in a man-to-man defense,"
Spivery said. "So, we had to play zone. And we did want to play some man-to-man
in the second half, but couldn't because we got into foul trouble."
Oklahoma was 5-for-24 from 3-point range and shot only 38 percent
overall, but committed a season-low 10 turnovers and benefited from 27 offensive
rebounds.
Chris Alexander scored 16 of Southern's first 20 points and
pulled the Jaguars within 23-20 with his 3-pointer from the left wing. Alexander
hit four 3-pointers in the first half and was 6-for-8 from the field while his
teammates shot 5-for-18. But was held to 0-for-5 shooting in the second half
but made four free throws.
Alexander is a native of Lawton, Okla., and attended Redlands
Community College in El Reno, Okla., before transferring to Southern. He scored
a season-high 20 points, and was the only SU player in double-figure scoring.
"I was very excited. As soon as I found out Oklahoma
was on the schedule this summer, I knew all my family and friends were going
to be there", said Alexander. "I've got to give credit to
my teammates. I've been working on my shooting and Coach and I have worked
on it one-on-one. I came out and shot it well, but they found me in open spots."
Alvin Mott added 9 points and Deforrest Riley-Smith chipped
in 8. Jerrid Campbell pulled down a team-high seven rebounds.
Oklahoma Coach, Kelvin Sampson, had praise for the visitors
from Baton Rouge. "That team beat Louisiana Tech for a reason. That team
is pretty good. They did things as good as any team we played at home this year,
plus they had big guys."
Southern now takes a day off to travel from Norman to Tulsa,
Okla., to take on the Golden Hurricanes of the University of Tulsa, Monday night.
