Sooners Face Intrastate Foe Saturday

Tulsa (5-4)

16/15 Oklahoma (5-2)

December 13 | 1:30 p.m. | Reynolds Center | Tulsa, Okla.

QUICK PREVIEW
Oklahoma (5-2) plays its second true road game of the season Saturday when it faces intrastate foe Tulsa (5-4) on Saturday at 1:30 p.m CT inside the 8,355-seat Donald W. Reynolds Center on the TU campus. The Sooners' No. 16/15 rankings are their highest in six seasons. Tulsa is coming off a 69-66 home loss to Southeastern Oklahoma State on Wednesday after winning two straight.

ON THE AIR
Saturday's contest will air on the Sooner Radio Network (KRXO 107.7 FM "The Franchise" in Oklahoma City; KTBZ 1430 AM in Tulsa; Sirius 84; XM 84) with Toby Rowland and Mike Houck calling the action. The game will be televised by CBS Sports Network with Rich Waltz and Doug Gottlieb announcing.

TICKETS
Tickets for Saturday's game are available at TulsaHurricane.com.

FIVE TOP STORYLINES
• OU sophomore point guard Jordan Woodard is the younger brother of Tulsa junior guard James Woodard. Key players on their respective teams, Jordan is averaging 8.1 points and an OU-high 4.1 assists per game (ranks sixth in Big 12) while James leads the Golden Hurricane with his 14.4 points and 2.3 3-pointers a contest. The pair played two years together on Edmond Memorial High School's varsity squad, winning the Oklahoma Class 6A title in 2011 and finishing runner up in 2012. Jordan led his squad to the 2013 title, as well.

• Oklahoma owns a 29-11 all-time series lead against Tulsa and has won 13 of the last 14 meetings. OU holds an 8-5 advantage in games played in Tulsa. Saturday's contest will mark the first between the programs in Tulsa since the Sooners posted a 69-44 road win at the BOK Center on Dec. 7, 2008. Eventual consensus national-player-of-the-year Blake Griffin finished with team highs of 19 points, nine rebounds and three blocks while also recording three steals in that contest. OU shot .500 from the field while holding the Golden Hurricane to a .333 mark. The Sooners' lone game at the Reynolds Center came on Nov. 30, 2005, a 62-53 win over TU.

Four of Oklahoma's seven opponents (Creighton, UCLA, Butler and Wisconsin) have been ranked in the AP Top 25 at least once this season, tied with Kansas for the most such foes of any Big 12 team.

• Oklahoma's defense has been stout all season, holding opponents to 61.3 points per game on .362 field goal and .273 3-point shooting. OU has held all seven of its opponents to lower point totals than what they were averaging entering the day of competition versus the Sooners. The defensive effort was particularly strong in the Battle 4 Atlantis, as OU held UCLA to 65 points (30 below its season average), Butler to 46 points (35 below its average) and Wisconsin to 69 points (six below its average).

• Four of Oklahoma's seven opponents (Creighton, UCLA, Butler and Wisconsin) have been ranked in the AP Top 25 at least once this season, tied with Kansas for the most such foes of any Big 12 team. Iowa State and Texas have played two teams that have been ranked in the Top 25 this year, while the other six league teams have played one or no such opponents.

• OU and Tulsa have one common opponent so far this year in Creighton. The Sooners, after holding an 18-point lead early in the second half on Nov. 19, lost a 65-63 road decision to the Bluejays. The Golden Hurricane posted a 77-64 home win Dec. 3. Creighton has been ranked as high as No. 23 in the AP poll this year (Nov. 24).

PREVIEWING TULSA
• Tulsa dropped to 5-4 on the year after Wednesday's 69-66 home loss to NCAA Division II opponent Southeastern Oklahoma State. The Golden Hurricane, now 3-1 at home, is averaging 64.9 points a game on .416 field goal, .364 3-point and .636 free throw shooting. Opponents are averaging 62.0 points on .397 field goal and .348 3-point shooting. TU is outrebounding its foes by 3.7 a contest.

• The Golden Hurricane returned four starters from last year's 21-13 team that made the NCAA Tournament. Its leading scorer the last two seasons, James Woodard again paces the squad in points with his 14.4 season average. The reigning American Conference Player of the Week is shooting .462 from the field and .389 from 3-point range (2.2 makes per game). Fellow junior guard Shaquille Harrison is coming off a 24-point game against Southeastern Oklahoma State (two shy of his career high) and is averaging 11.4 points and 3.3 assists. Marquel Curtis, another junior guard, averages 9.6 points on .534 shooting while junior forward D'Andre Wright contributes 9.3 points and 4.2 boards a game.

• Frank Haith is in his first season as Tulsa's head coach after serving the last three years as Missouri's head coach and the seven previous seasons as Miami's head coach. He owns a 210-133 (.612) career record. Assistant coaches Tom Abatemarco, Dennis Felton and Dave Leitao have all served as Division I head coaches.

LAST YEAR VS. TULSA
Last year in Norman, Jordan Woodard scored a still-career-high 24 points and handed out eight assists in a 101-91 OU victory in mid-December. Woodard made 17 free throws on a school-record-tying 22 attempts, while Buddy Hield finished with 23 points and Cameron Clark 15. James Woodard paced Tulsa with 19 points while Shaquille Harrison and Pat Swilling registered 17 each. OU shot .483 from the field and .474 (9 for 19) from 3-point range, while Tulsa posted respective .476 and .444 (12 for 27) marks.

Frank Booker

SOONER TIP-INS
• The Sooners have held each of their seven opponents to sub-44-percent field goal shooting (five opponents have shot below 38 percent). OU has held six of seven foes to sub-33-percent 3-point shooting.

• OU is holding opponents to 61.3 points a game and limiting them to .362 field goal and .273 3-point shooting (ranks 23rd and 29th nationally). Through seven games last year, opponents averaged 79.3 points on .434 field goal and .318 3-point shooting.

• Oklahoma led the Big 12 in free throw shooting each of the last two years (.749 last season and .756 in 2012-13) and is shooting .743 this year to rank second in the league. Each of OU's top seven scorers are shooting at least .700 from the line.

• Ryan Spangler has led OU in rebounding in 28 of his 40 games since becoming a Sooner, including six of seven contests this season.

• OU boasts the Big 12's second- and third-leading rebounders among guards. Each standing 6-foot-4, Isaiah Cousins is averaging 6.3 boards per game and Buddy Hield is averaging 6.0 (6-foot-6 Iowa State guard Bryce Dejean-Jones is averaging 6.9).

• Spangler is 6 for 9 from 3-point range this season after going 3 for 11 all of last year. In addition to his .667 3-point field goal mark, Spangler is shooting .650 from the field. He has shot .500 or better from the floor in 32 of his 40 games at OU.

• Last year's Sooners averaged 81.9 points to rank seventh nationally out of 351 NCAA Division I teams. It was OU's highest scoring average in 20 years. The Sooners scored at least 80 points 18 times last year after doing it 17 times the previous three seasons combined.

• OU returned 71 percent of its 3-point production from last season's team that averaged a school-record 8.6 treys per game. This year's Sooners rank third in the Big 12 by averaging 7.7 3-pointers a contest.

UP NEXT
OU returns home to face its second consecutive intrastate opponent when it hosts Oral Roberts on Tuesday at 6 p.m. CT at Lloyd Noble Center. The game will be televised by ESPNU.