Men's Basketball Beats Texas, 75-54

Feb. 10, 2001

By JIM VERTUNO
AP Sports Writer

AUSTIN, Texas - Oklahoma surprised Texas with another rout.

During last football season, the Sooners beat the Longhorns 63-14 on their way to the national championship.

On Saturday night, it was the basketball team's turn. No. 21 Oklahoma (19-4, 8-3 Big 12) beat Texas 75-54, ended the Longhorns' 25-game home winning streak and kept the Sooners within striking distance of Big 12 leaders No. 12 Iowa State and No. 5 Kansas.

"Now we're a pretty good basketball team," said Sooners coach Kelvin Sampson, who seemed surprised by how easily his team handled the Longhorns on their home court.

Texas had beaten No. 7 Illinois and Connecticut during its winning streak this season, and the Sooners expected a much tighter game.

"We're certainly not 20 points better than Texas," Sampson said. "(But) this is the most impressive win this team has had."

Most impressive for the Sooners were guards Nolan Johnson and J.R. Raymond. Johnson scored 23 points and Raymond made five 3-pointers in the first half and finished with 19 points.

The Sooners also outrebounded Texas 48-29 and shot 47 percent on the Longhorns home court. Oklahoma also went 20-of-25 from the foul line.

Maurice Evans led Texas (17-7, 6-4), which shot just 32 percent, with 12 points.

"We definitely got beat every way to could break it down," Texas coach Rick Barnes said.

Darren Kelly, Texas' leading scorer this season, was just 2-of-13 from the floor and finished with just five points.

"Most of the blame should go to me," Kelly said. "I'm the senior on this team and I didn't step up. I didn't light the fire under my teammates."

The Sooners were the team most likely to end Texas' winning streak at the Frank Erwin Center. Oklahoma has won 20 of the last 24 meetings with Texas, and five of the last 10 on the Longhorns' home court.

A crowd of 13,222 was fired up by the home winning streak and the chance to extend it against a bitter rival. But many of the fans were heading for the exits midway through the second half.

During one late timeout, someone threw back one of the small orange balls the cheerleaders toss to the fans and it landed at the feet of the Texas players in their sideline huddle.

The Longhorns' only lead came in the first half when Brian Boddicker hit a 3-pointer and followed it with a layup to put Texas ahead 16-15.

But Raymond's second 3-pointer sparked an 8-0 run that put the Sooners ahead to stay at 23-16.

Texas tried five different defenders on Raymond with no success. He connected three more times from long range, including a fallaway shot from about 23 feet that banked in as Oklahoma took a 45-32 lead into halftime.

Raymond was 5-of-5 on 3-point attempts in the first half. The Sooners shot 56 percent from the floor to make up for 12 first-half turnovers.

When Raymond finally cooled off, Johnson scored seven of the Sooners' first nine points after halftime.

"Usually we come out sluggish in the second half," Johnson said. "The main thing coach told us about at halftime was don't let them back in the game."

Johnson scored five straight points on a spinning layup around William Wyatt in the lane and then drew a foul on Evans, but still dropped in a soft floater on a 3-point play.

Johnson's free throw with 15:12 to play gave Oklahoma 59-34 lead with 15 minutes left. Texas never again cut the lead to under 20.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Related News

Related Videos

Sponsors