Oklahoma Handles High Point, 93-65

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Oklahoma's 12-1 spurt to start the second half increased a 14-point halftime lead to 25 and the Sooners cruised to a 93-65 first-round win over High Point in the Great Alaska Shootout on Thursday night. Kevin Bookout led five Sooners in double digits in scoring with 15 points.

Kelvin Sampson's Sooners shot .532 from the field as they improved to 2-0 on the young season. High Point shot .364 on the night and committed 25 turnovers in falling to 1-1.

High Point led 12-9 at the 14:26 mark of the first half before a Jaison Williams 3-pointer and a Johnnie Gilbert alley-oop dunk put OU up 14-12. After a Panthers free throw narrowed the gap to one, the Sooners outscored High Point 39-15 over the last 11:57 of the first half and the first 3:14 of the second.

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Oklahoma, which improved to 3-1 all-time in the Great Alaska Shootout, led by 25 (53-28) with 16:46 left in the game. High Point continued to fight and reduced its deficit to 16 points (70-54) with 7:20 remaining. But the Sooners balanced attack proved too much to overcome.

"I just thought we wore them down," said Sampson following the game. "I didn't think we did anything particularly good, I just thought we wore them down. I think they've got a good team and will compete in their league. But our size hurts a team like that because it's hard to score on us around the rim."

Following Bookout in the scoring parade was Drew Lavender (14 points), Lawrence McKenzie (11), Jaison Williams (11) and Terrell Everett (10). Bookout also contributed a team-high eight rebounds while Lavender's seven assists were a game high. Johnnie Gilbert came off the bench to supply nine points, all in the first half, and six rebounds.

Taj Gray, the reigning Big 12 Newcomer of the Week who had 29 points and 14 rebounds last Saturday against Cal State Northridge, got into early foul trouble and played just two minutes in the first half. Gray finished with five points and two rebounds in 13 minutes of action.

Post players Larry Turner and Longar Longar saw their first action of the season and played extremely well. Turner scored five points and had three rebounds in 13 minutes while sparking OU's defense on multiple occasions. Longar was very productive in his eight minutes with six points, three boards and three rejections. The 6-11 freshman got OU's bench jumping late in the game with a thunderous dunk that followed a pump fake. Longar was fouled on the play and made the free throw for a three-point conversion.

"Our strength's inside, but if we're going to be a good team we've got to get better guard play," said Sampson. "I didn't think our guard play tonight was as good as it's going to have to be. The great thing about playing in an exempt tournament is you get exposed. Sometimes you're not quite sure what your weakness is. We found out our guard play has to get better. We were a little too sloppy out top."

The Sooners committed 18 turnovers. Through two games, OU has racked up 38 turnovers for an average of 19.0 a game. Last year, the Sooners averaged 13.1 turnovers a game.

Oklahoma will take on No. 22 Washington on Friday at 11 p.m. CST. The Huskies held on for a 78-71 win over Utah Thursday behind 29 and 25 points from Nate Robinson and Brandon Roy, respectively.

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