Postgame Quotes - OU 81, ORU 73 - University of Oklahoma

Oklahoma Head Coach Kelvin Sampson
On the game:
"First off, I want to say congratulations to Oral Roberts. Coach Sutton did a great job having his players prepared to play. Those kids came in and played their hearts out and almost left with a win. They shot 55 percent from the floor and only lost by eight. ORU was well-prepared and they are going to be a fun team to watch. It's not a surprise that they won 25 games last year."

"We did a lot better this game. We scored better and we cut down on turnovers, which was our goal. We only had five turnovers this game but we forced 18. This was a gut-check game for us. It takes a good team to be down by seven near the end and win by eight points. We are going to keep working. The more games we play, the better we'll be. You are never as good, or bad, as you think you are."

On Kevin Bookout:
"Kevin's greatest asset is his jump hook. It's still a little dusty because of his injuries so we're working on getting it out of the trunk and get it working again. Kevin possesses two great qualities, hard work and self-pride. He cares about Oklahoma basketball more than he cares about Kevin Bookout and that makes him a great player. He is going to go down as one of my all-time favorite players."

On team injuries:
"We almost didn't play Michael Neal tonight. He is a great shooter but he is having trouble with his Achilles' tendon. We finally had to bite the bullet and let him play, but that meant sitting out Austin Johnson, who has a bad ankle. We have to get our guards healthy soon."

Oklahoma Senior Kevin Bookout
On his inside game:
"I felt real good. Yesterday in practice we worked for 50 minutes on one-on-one post play and going against Taj (Gray) in practice really got my confidence going. When you can score on Taj or get a shot over Taj, you can get a shot over anyone."

On getting into foul trouble:
"Caleb Green is a really aggressive player. He knows how to draw fouls and get to the line. He is really aggressive and knows how to get to the hole. I learned a lot from him just by watching game film this week."

On the team overall:
"I felt like we really came together in the last five minutes. I thought we grew up a lot. This was a great win for us."

Oklahoma Senior Terrell Everett
On his shooting:
"I hit a shot in the second half and after that it seemed like all my shots started falling. It pretty much came down to that one shot. After I hit it, I felt like I could hit all my shots."

On the team overall:
"We still have some work to do defensively. I thought we showed some toughness tonight being down seven and coming back to win against a good team."

Oral Roberts Head Coach Scott Sutton
On rebounding:
"They killed us. I thought we did a good job most of the night. The last three minutes when it was anybody's ball game, Nate Carter got in there two times and got offensive rebounds and two three-point plays. It was encouraging, but when you get to crunch time those are the things that win you the game or lose you the game and tonight it cost us the game."

On turnovers:
"We just had stupid turnovers the last three or four minutes. I thought two of them were probably the biggest points of the game. The first, they were fronting Caleb (Green) and Mickey (Michalec) doesn't put enough touch on the ball. The next time, they got Caleb with a push off, which at the time of the game was a tough call, but probably a good one."

On the game:
"I'm proud of our guys. I thought we came in here and battled and put ourselves in position to win the game against a very good team. I thought they had a very good crowd. We've played three very good halves of basketball going back to the second half of the Utah State game. I thought we played well in our two halves tonight. It's disappointing that we didn't come away with a win in either game, but it is certainly encouraging."

Oral Roberts Junior Caleb Green
On OU's rebounds and second-chance points:
"They killed us. They have big guards and they are a great team. We should have expected that out of them. We need to be in the position to block out and do the dirty work just like they did. They played a great game tonight."

Oral Roberts Senior Jonathan Bluitt
On the game:
"They hit some tough shots down the stretch, a couple of them I got a piece of and I was kind of shocked that they went in. I just had to smile. For the most part, I was proud of my teammates and the coaching staff for the way we played and the way we came out. These last two games give us the confidence that we can be in the game with anybody as long as we play the way we have been playing."

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Postgame Quotes - OU 81, ORU 73

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