OU Moves to 4-0 with Win at Tulsa, 62-53

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- Terrell Everett scored a career-high 26 points, including three late free throws, to help No. 5 Oklahoma stave off a late rally in a 62-53 win against Tulsa on Wednesday night.

Everett scored six of Oklahoma's points during a 10-4 run that gave the Sooners a 47-28 lead with 11:32 left.

But with Everett on the bench for a brief rest, Tulsa immediately charged back.

Deion James scored six straight points to bring the Golden Hurricane within 47-34 and Chris Wallace followed with a three-point play after Everett had returned. Charles Ramsdell dunked an alley-oop pass with two hands and Anthony Price brought the Golden Hurricane within 49-41 with a fast-break layup.

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Nate Carter hit a 3-pointer from the left wing and a jumper from the right side on consecutive possessions to extend Oklahoma's lead to 54-42, and Tulsa's comeback chances faded.

Everett hit three of Oklahoma's eight free throws down the stretch, and the Golden Hurricane (1-3) never again were closer than eight points.

The Sooners (4-0), who hadn't played at Tulsa in 20 years, were greeted by a standing-room crowd of 8,555 fans that tied the Reynolds Center record set at a 2002 game against Kansas.

Oklahoma had been ranked No. 8 in its last visit, and an unranked Tulsa team pulled off a 104-89 upset that made Sooners coach Billy Tubbs vow never to bring his team back to the state's second-largest city.

Preseason Big 12 player of the year Taj Gray played only two minutes in the second half before fouling out with 4:26 left, and it was Everett that took over for Oklahoma.

Darold Crow and Ramsdell hit 3-pointers to cut into Oklahoma's 19-point halftime lead and bring Tulsa within 37-24 in the first four minutes of the second half.

Everett drove from the right wing for a layup to start the Sooners' response, then added a floater from the left side and was credited for a basket on a goaltending call against Ramsdell that put Oklahoma ahead 47-28.

Michael Neal scored 14 points and Kevin Bookout had 10 rebounds for Oklahoma, which got only five points and two rebounds from Gray.

Crow, Ramsdell and Price scored 10 apiece to lead Tulsa.

Oklahoma scored the first eight points of the game and pulled away with a 13-2 run that Neal capped with a fast-break layup to make it 23-9.

Everett scored 15 of Oklahoma's first 30 points, including three layups off drives to the basket. He added a 3-pointer and jumper from just inside the 3-point line to extend Oklahoma's lead to 30-11 late in the first half.

Tulsa scored the next seven points, but Oklahoma answered with a 7-0 run of its own for a 37-18 halftime lead.

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OU Head Coach Kelvin Sampson:
“I want to compliment coach [Doug] Wojcik and his staff. His kids played hard for 40 minutes. I felt that we did a lot of good things in the first half. Your best player has to be on the court longer than 18 or 19 minutes. Sometimes it's not how good you play, but how smart you play. If you have fouls beware of it; if you have four fouls don't go clubbing guys. Don't ever try to avoid mistakes, learn from them. This team is going to be fine; this experience is vital to us. We made a lot of mistakes that our correctable. This could be the best thing that has happened to Taj [Gray].”

Tulsa Head Coach Doug Wojcik:
“I want to open up by giving Oklahoma credit. We knew we were in for a battle, and they battle. You can see the Jud Heathcote in Coach [Kelvin] Sampson in that one. They are the fifth-ranked team in the country. They did a great job of playing their game. It really, really hurt us on the glass, and that was the most important key for us. I have to give them a lot of credit They are classy kids. Kevin Bookout is a classy kid. I recruited him a little bit at North Carolina. I really like him.”

OU Moves to 4-0 with Win at Tulsa, 62-53

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OU Moves to 4-0 with Win at Tulsa, 62-53

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