Postgame Notes

Feb. 6, 2012

• After losing by 38 to Missouri on Jan. 3 in the Big 12 opener for both teams, the Sooners dropped a 71-68 home contest to the fourth-ranked Tigers tonight. Steven Pledger's potential game-tying 3-pointer was just off the mark at the buzzer.

• The Sooners led much of the first half (by as many 6 at 29-23) before falling behind by three at the break, 36-33. Missouri ballooned its lead to 10 (50-40) and held on as OU crawled to within two points on multiple occasions, including with 1:30 to go.

• OU entered the game with a .746 season free throw mark (.767 in Big 12 play) but went just 9-for-23 (.391) tonight. Its previous season low (at least 10 attempts) was .611 against Washington State in the third game of the year. The Sooners missed their first eight attempts tonight.

• Oklahoma was outrebounded 38-23 in the first meeting in Columbia, but posted a 36-22 advantage on the glass tonight. The Sooners grabbed 13 offensive rebounds to Missouri's three, and outscored the Tigers 12-7 on second-chance opportunities.

• OU went 7-for-12 (.583) from 3-point range, its most conversions in 15 games (went 8-for-16 Dec. 10 against Arkansas).

• Junior guard Sam Grooms scored a career-high 17 points (previous high was 12) and tied a career best with 10 assists while committing just two turnovers in 38 minutes. Grooms, who entered the game shooting .324 from the field, was 7-for-9 from the floor. He leads the Big 12 with his 3.1 assist-to-turnover ratio. Over the last seven games, he has 50 assists and nine turnovers (5.6 ratio).

• Junior guard Steven Pledger scored a team-high 22 points on 8-for-14 field goal and 5-for-9 3-point shooting. It was his seventh game of at least 20 points this year (tallied three such outings last season). His five treys set an OU season high. Pledger was just 1-for-4 from the free throw line after entering the game with a .897 season mark to rank eighth nationally. He had made 44 of his previous 46 attempts (27-for-28 in Big 12 play) going back to Dec. 10.

• Junior forward Andrew Fitzgerald scored 12 points on 5-for-10 shooting, good for his 17th double-figures effort in the last 18 games.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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