OU basketball wakes up in second half, takes care of St. Francis

OU head coach Porter Moser was this close to tossing that jacket in the season opener. He kept it on, and then the Sooners, coincidentally, got it going.

It turned into a second half blitz by OU to guarantee beginning the season on the right note. A shaky, clunky opening half was replaced by dominance in the second half of a 102-66 victory against visiting St. Francis on Monday at the Lloyd Noble Center.

The Sooners trailed 49-45, and you could see Moser just seconds away from taking off the jacket, furious at how it was going. However, how did OU respond? The Sooners went on a 32-3 run and before you knew it, the game was out of reach at 77-52.

Big reason? Kuol Atak. In the middle of that run, Atak had an 8-0 spurt himself. Atak scored all 18 of his points in the second half. He went 4-of-7 from 3-point territory, all in the second half as well.

Atak never got the chance to show what he could do last season, redshirting. It worked as he grew an inch and put on 20 pounds, time to show what he can do.

“Just dedication of adding strength,” Moser said. “A lot of people when they talk about adding strength, they think about the waist up. He’s also added strength to be able to slide his feet laterally and have leverage under his body. We know what he can do, how much of a threat he is stretching the floor with his shot. But I really liked — they were trying to iso him a couple times on switches. I thought he did a nice job sliding his feet. One time they did go by him, he stayed with it and blocked it. 

“I loved the play where he hit two in a row, then all of a sudden he faked it and drove it in. That’s growth. So many guys heat check that one and the guys flying at you and he drove it down. Our guys know it that he’s such a threat. Even though he knows he’s gonna shoot it, he’s 6-9, he has such a high release, he kind of keeps moving farther and farther back. But the thing that stuck out to me — I need to watch the tape — but I thought his second half defense of trying to keep that dribbler in front of him was impressive.”

Game 1 news/notes

*Balance is the name of the game. There will come a time when a go-to guy might have to be established, but this team has a nice rhythm to it with everybody a threat on the floor.

Four players scored exactly 16 points (Wague, Nijel Pack, Xzayvier Brown, Tae Davis).

*Couldn’t ask for more from center Mo Wague. The goal has been about building off how he ended last season. Mission accomplished for the initial game.

Wague brought the energy and the production. He finished with 16 points with 10 rebounds and three blocks. Five of those were offensive rebounds.

“Mo got the first chewing of the year from me,” Moser said. “That turnover and then the foul after, that started us off. Got me right out of the gates chewing on him. But I think he settled down. I just told him. You had 25 minutes, two fouls. I thought defensively, when I breakdown the tape, I thought he was the most consistent defender the whole night. Had 10 rebounds. Got us a lot of extra shots. We wanted to get — 37 percent was our goal on our misses. We missed 31 shots and got 14 of them back. 

“So that’s well over 40 percent of our misses back. Almost closer to 50 percent of our misses back, and Mo was a big part of that. I’ve been saying it all along, I just thought he ended the year so well and he’s picked up where he finished off. Just giving us a lot of value of defense, rebounding, energy. The key is for him — and that’s why I got on him because we’ve been talking so much. He was just amped up. He tried to get it back and just grabbed him. Those are the ones he’s gotta leave behind, but I thought the rest of the game, he was outstanding.”

*OU was without a couple of players it wants to have this season. Jadon Jones was no surprise, out with a groin injury. However, freshman center Kai Rogers missed the game with a knee injury.

“We’ll know more tomorrow. It’s more of a day-to-day thing,” said Moser about Rogers.

Up next

The first test, after all, is here. Cupcake city ends on the first weekend. OU takes on No. 21 Gonzaga in Spokane, Wash., at 9:30 p.m. Saturday on ESPN2. That aggressive non-conference schedule is about to happen.