OU basketball uses second half run to put down Alcorn State

You can’t sleepwalk through a college basketball game, and it took OU a long time, way too long of a time, to finally wake up.

Never exactly playing its best but good enough when it needed to be to avoid a disastrous upset attempt. It didn’t matter what buttons head coach Porter Moser attempted to push.

OU eventually turned it on down the stretch to put away visiting Alcorn State 72-53 on Sunday afternoon at the Lloyd Noble Center.

The Braves entered at 0-6 and in their previous games against Power 4 opponents? Were beaten by at least 20 points every time. But with seven minutes left in the second half, it was just 54-46 for OU.

OU simply could not find its shooting. What it did do, though, is find its physicality in the second half. After being outrebounded 25-19 in the first half, the Sooners had a 46-38 overall edge (27-13 in the second half).

OU led just 35-33 at halftime but slowly separated against the Braves in the final minutes.

The Sooners shot just 33 percent from the field, just 9 of 31 from 3-point territory and missed nine free throws. Whew, as Moser would say, gotta get better.

Moser says…

“A great stat about points off turnovers, 44-to-6 points off turnovers. We’ve taken care of the ball and converted. We call those DCOs, our defense creates our offense. The emphasis this last week was defense, I thought we have for three of the four halves. They had 20 in the second. They scored the first 20 seconds and the last 20 seconds. The other 19 minutes they had 15 points. Derrion Reed had a solid game, played within himself, no turnovers, two assists, eight rebounds. I constantly talk about the glass. That was his best game. Kai Rogers got five offensive rebounds in 12 minutes. Their guards were extremely physical, we exerted a lot of energy on defense, and I don’t think our offense was stagnant, they really got into our guards. Nigel has 20 threes in the last four games. We are trending defensively. It was an ugly game offensively, missed some shots we could have made, but we took care of the ball, only had seven turnovers, so that was good. We just couldn’t break away.”

OU news/notes

*Go ahead and circle this one for freshman Kai Rogers. You want to talk about progress, you can put a check here.

After playing just the final three minutes Thursday, he was in for some legit action Sunday. Foul trouble with Mo Wague meant Rogers had to bring it.

Rogers had four points, six rebounds and a steal in 12 minutes. The big one? Five offensive rebounds, using his size very well.

*That’s as aggressive as we’ve seen Derrion Reid this season. If he can figure out his role, that’s one piece to this OU puzzle coming together.

He made a couple of 3-pointers. Able to bring down some rebounds. That type of complete performance is going to be necessary the rest of the way.

He finished with 16 points and eight rebounds.

*If there’s one person you want to keep shooting, it’s Nijel Pack. And he did. A couple of late 3-pointers really helped ease any anxiety.

He finished with 17 points that included going 5 of 12 from 3-point territory.

Up next

This is where OU (4-2) will attempt to build an NCAA Tournament resume. Four straight games either on the road or a neutral site against quality opposition. It all begins Friday against Marquette in Chicago. Marquette, only 4-3, is a golden chance for OU to earn a win that might matter in a few months.