University of Oklahoma Athletics
University of Oklahoma
Oral Roberts
Defense Spurs Comeback, 73-60 Men's Hoops Win
December 11, 2010 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 11, 2010
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Video Library | NORMAN, Okla. (AP) -- With a roster full of new players, the pieces are only starting to come together for Oklahoma.
Freshman Cameron Clark scored 17 points to set a career-best for the second straight game and fellow newcomer Carl Blair set season-highs with 12 points and nine assists as Oklahoma overcame a hot start by Oral Roberts to rally for a 73-60 victory on Saturday.
But after following a five-game losing streak with back-to-back victories, coach Jeff Capel said his Sooners (5-5) are "constantly evolving" and haven't established an identity yet.
"For us, it probably will be all year," Capel said. "I'm not saying that's a bad thing. It's just probably what it's going to be."
Capel did find a defensive approach that works, deploying 1-3-1 and matchup zones to hold Oral Roberts scoreless for nine minutes in the first half and engineer an 18-0 run that put the Sooners ahead to stay.
"Being a young team with a lot of new players, we've got to find our niche," said Blair, who transferred from New Orleans.
Oral Roberts dominated early, rushing out to a 16-3 lead behind a pair of 3-pointers by Warren Niles and a three-point play by Steven Roundtree. Niles had half of the Golden Eagles' points as they built a 24-12 lead midway through the first half, but then everything fell apart.
The Sooners held Oral Roberts without a point for more than nine minutes and without a basket for the final 10 1/2 minutes of the first half while roaring back to take a 34-26 halftime lead.
Oral Roberts (4-5) then cut a 10-point deficit to 40-38 in the second half, but the Sooners put together an 11-1 run to regain control.
"I thought their toughness was the difference in the game - or our lack of toughness," Golden Eagles coach Scott Sutton said. "Maybe that's a better way to put it, because when things started going south on us there ... our guys didn't step up. They didn't handle adversity very well and missed a lot of easy shots.
"Guys can complain and say they got hit on the arm. You've still got to finish shots."
Niles led Oral Roberts with 22 points, and Dominique Morrison and Roundtree scored 11 apiece. The Golden Eagles shot 36 percent, breaking a string of five straight games when they made at least half of their shots.
Oral Roberts has lost 11 straight in the in-state rivalry and hasn't beaten the Sooners since 1977.
"I think we took a step back tonight. Our guys made a lot of strides the last three weeks, and that's why I'm so disappointed," Sutton said. "I really thought if we played the way we had in the last five games, we would have had a good chance to come here and win."
Steven Pledger scored 19 points, Andrew Fitzgerald added 14 and Cade Davis had 10 for the Sooners, who will play at Oral Roberts next season before concluding the three-game series the following season back home in Norman.
Fitzgerald had a three-point play and a putback during Oklahoma's big second-half run, and Pledger's fast-break layup restored the lead to 51-39 with 10:58 to play.
Oral Roberts got as close as 57-52 after Niles' 3-pointer from the right wing with 7:28 remaining, but Blair and Clark - two of nine newcomers on Oklahoma's roster - teamed up to score the next six points for the Sooners. Blair hit a jumper from the free-throw line and Clark followed with a jumper and a two-handed putback dunk on C.J. Washington's miss inside.
They also teamed up on a highlight-reel alley-oop for the second straight game, with Blair again delivering a pass from the halfcourt stripe as Clark soared to dunk along the right baseline.
"Cam's talented. If he keeps working, talent's going to take over. His ceiling is sky high," Blair said. "The alley-oop thing, there's more to come. That's going to be something that everybody's going to love to see. We're going to get one every game."
Sutton said Michael Craion, the Golden Eagles' top rebounder and second-leading scorer last season, reaggravated a foot injury and will miss at least a couple weeks and possibly the rest of the season. Craion had a screw surgically inserted into his right foot in August, reaggravated it in the preseason and didn't play in the team's first six games.
He returned to play a total of 17 minutes in the Golden Eagles' past two games, but sat out against the Sooners.
"The thing I don't want to do is waste his senior year on bringing him back and play two games and he reaggravates it," Sutton said.
