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Men's Basketball
at Wisconsin
University of Oklahoma Athletics
Monday, January 28
Norman
8:00 PM
University of Oklahoma
64
vs
61
Oklahoma State
OU Wins Wild Bedlam Game, 64-61
January 28, 2008 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 28, 2008
|
NORMAN, Okla. (AP) -Taylor Griffin got wrapped up in a headlock and got slammed to the ground. Then he and his brother made sure Oklahoma got the last laugh.
Griffin scored a career-high 20 points and brother Blake Griffin converted the go-ahead three-point play in the final minute to lead Oklahoma to a 64-61 defeat of Oklahoma State in a heated Bedlam rivalry game Monday night.
"That's just Bedlam," Taylor Griffin said. "Everybody was cool after the game. It's a part of the game. You've got to love that."
For the first time since the 1999 Big 12 Conference tournament, neither basketball team entered Bedlam ranked. But the rivalry didn't need rankings to make it interesting.
The heat got cranked up just after halftime, when Oklahoma State's Martavius Adams was called for an intentional foul for grabbing Taylor Griffin around the neck and throwing him to the floor.
Taylor Griffin came up with a loose ball on the Cowboys' next possession, and went the length of the floor for a two-handed jam before linking his hands at the thumb and flapping his hands to mimic the gesture Oklahoma State's Marcus Dove flashes after a dunk.
"I thought both teams just were playing so hard. I don't think there was anything malicious about anything that happened," Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel said. "I thought both teams were competing, both teams were battling.
"In the heat of competition, things happen when you have so many big guys. You had some hard collisions at times."
Including the dunk, the Sooners scored the first nine points of the second half during a 13-2 run and took a 40-34 lead on Crocker's 3-pointer. The Sooners extended it to 53-45 after Blake Griffin's two free throws with 4:43 remaining, but Oklahoma State rallied to tie it at 57-57 on Obi Muonelo's 3-pointer from the left wing with 1:25 left.
That's when the younger Griffin came through.
After David Godbold missed an off-balance 3-point attempt with the shot clock expiring, Blake Griffin pulled off an acrobatic putback that put the Sooners ahead with 54.5 seconds left. Reaching behind his head, Griffin tipped the ball to himself and then banked it off the backboard before stepping to the line for a free throw that made it 60-57.
"Blake Griffin made a spectacular play with the game tied, and just willed his way to get that ball and stick it in," Oklahoma State coach Sean Sutton said. "He's a special player and he made a big-time play."
Blake Griffin and Tony Crocker then went 4-for-4 from the free-throw line, helping make up for the Sooners' 23-for-36 night from the foul line, to keep the margin intact. Byron Eaton's desperation 3-pointer at the buzzer went off the rim and out.
"I thought it was good when it left my hand," Eaton said. "I wish it would have went down so we could still be out there playing right now."
Blake Griffin ended up with 15 points and Austin Johnson scored 10 for the Sooners (15-5, 3-2 Big 12), who have won three in a row after an 0-2 start in Big 12 play.
Muonelo scored a career-best 25 points, including 17 in a spectacular first half, in his first start in over two months for the Cowboys (10-10, 1-5) and Eaton added 18 points. Oklahoma State has lost five in a row for the first time since a six-game skid in January 1987.
"It's tearing us down inside," Eaton said. "It's coming down to one-possession games. ... We're right there on track to get a win. We're right there on track for the big game. We've just got to close games out."
Muonelo's sharpshooting kept Oklahoma State in the game through a miserable offensive stretch early on, and he sent them into halftime ahead 32-27 with an emotional finish.
After Omar Leary's missed 3-pointer, Muonelo got the ball in transition, nailed a 3-pointer from the top of the key and then bounced his way off the court and up a tunnel screaming "Come on!" and looking toward the crowd.
Capel challenged his team during the break, and the Griffin brothers found a way help Oklahoma overcome the Cowboys.
"We didn't play our best, and we didn't play our best because of them," Capel said. "But we still found a way to win."
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