Sooners Drop Exhibition Game to Athletes First, 89-82

The Oklahoma men's basketball team fell to Athletes First by a score of 89-82 in the Sooners' first exhibition of the season Monday night at Lloyd Noble Center. The exhibition loss is just the second of the Kelvin Sampson era and only the second in the last 32 preseason contests for OU. Freshman point guard Drew Lavender impressed the estimated crowd of 4,000 with 21 points in his Sooners debut.

Lavender, who led all Sooners in scoring, turned in team-high five assists as well. Senior Jabahri Brown began the 2003-04 campaign with 16 points, a would-be OU best, and 10 rebounds for a double-double. Sophomore De'Angelo Alexander was one of four Sooners to reach double-digits in points, with 16. Senior Jason Detrick, who redshirted last season, had 10 points, including six from the free throw line.

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"It's a good opportunity to look at the way we play and the way we're going to have to play," said Sampson. "This team is going to be on a learning curve for a while. We have so many new players and young guys. We have some very talented kids, but you could tell that it was men playing against boys out there tonight."

The Sooners started the first half slowly, despite the best efforts of Lavender who disregarded the debut jitters to score seven of OU's first 10 points. OU was down 18-12 with 13 minutes remaining in the half, thanks to early outbursts from Athletes First guard and Missouri alum John Woods. Woods poured in 20 first-half points, one night after scoring 24 (all in the second half) against Tulsa.

An Alexander three-pointer capped a nine-point OU rally and gave the Sooners the lead, 28-25. The advantage was short lived as Athletes First pushed its lead to 11 points in the final minutes of the half.

A pair of late threes from Alexander and junior college transfer Jaison Williams narrowed the margin to 48-43 at the intermission.

Both squads shot well in the first half with Athletes First hitting 60.7 percent (17-28) of its shots, compared to the Sooners' 50 percent mark. OU canned four of eight three pointers, while Athletes First hit five of seven attempts from behind the line.

Lavender's speed was the culprit as the Columbus, Ohio, native dropped in three early second half lay-ups to help OU cut its deficit to one, 57-56.

OU took its first lead of the second half at 73-72 thanks to a Brown dunk, which was followed by a Brown put-back, pushing the score to 75-72. A five-point rally returned the lead to Athletes First by a score of 77-75 at the four-minute mark.

A five-minute Sooners scoring drought, combined with a 13-point rally from Athletes First, sealed the game for the visitors.

Every Sooner, except Kevin Bookout (injury) and Kellen Sampson (redshirting) saw action for the Sooners.

Said the OU head coach, "We've got to get guys back healthy, but more importantly we've got to get guys to compete. When you get outrebounded 50-28, it has a tendency to get your attention. We'll see how we play Saturday."

Oklahoma faces EA Sports All Stars Saturday at 7 p.m. inside Lloyd Noble Center. The game follows the OU-Baylor football game, which is set for a 1:30 kickoff. OU begins the regular season with Eastern Washington in the Sooner Invitational on Nov. 21.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Sooners Drop Exhibition Game to Athletes First, 89-82

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