Sooners cruise, earn 39-point wire-to-wire victory
There are going to be games when Sooners guards Milos Uzan and Javian McCollum don’t have to do the heavy lifting. But the team just looks different when they get out to a fast start.
The duo did just that and never looked back. OU never trailed on its way to a 93-54 victory against visiting Texas State on Tuesday evening.
Uzan, a sophomore, continued to show how much command he has of the offense. Even if McCollum does a lot of the initial ball handling, Uzan makes the plays.
He finished with eight points, five assists and four rebounds.
“From the beginning,” head coach Porter Moser said. “Just look at the first play of the game how he skipped it to Jalon Moore. I saw him get a roll one to Luke. He has command of the game. It’s a luxury.”
Then you let McCollum get into a rhythm, and that’s working out exactly the way Moser envisioned it. McCollum had a game-high 15 points, coming off a rough outing Friday evening.
It was just back to work.
“Then you have his counterpart in Javian,” Moser said. “I thought he got the pace going, made some shots in the second half. He’s just so fast. He can shoot, so they worry about him with the pull-up shot, but then he can go right by you. His speed.”
OU is now 3-0 and hosts Texas-Rio Grande Valley 7 p.m. Friday.
Game 3 Takeaways
Responding well
*First adversity, if you want to call it that. OU led 45-22 at halftime. But the Bobcats came out fired up, cutting the margin to 17.
Again, no real danger, but the first time Moser needed the team to show they can respond after letting up just a bit.
Mission accomplished.
“I thought there was a lesson that I really liked to see,” Moser said. “This was the first time we didn’t win the first five minutes of the second half. We had done it. We had to call timeout, and I thought they responded. They came out and answered a run. That was a really good run. They were amped up, felt the mojo going. They cut it to 17 and had their press going.
“Then we answered with, I think, Rivaldo had a tip-dunk. Sam had a couple of offensive rebounds. We had a couple of stops and opened it back up again. Le’Tre hit a big three. We had guys off the bench turn it for us, 44 points off the bench. They sparked us in the second half. That’s really good. We made those subs and the energy went up.”
Le’Tre Darthard had 14 points off the bench.
Bigs coming up big again
Another fine evening from Sam Godwin and then John Hugley coming off the bench.
Godwin did a little of everything on his way to 10 points, six rebounds, three blocks and three steals. Hugley had 12 points and seven rebounds.
“Sam (Godwin) and John (Hugley IV) were doing so well,” Moser said. “I was trying to find some for Luke (Northweather), too. Luke’s natural position is at five. I’m playing him at the four. I’m trying to get him some five. It’s a good problem. Sam had 10 points and six rebounds in 15 minutes. John had 12 points and seven rebounds in 17 minutes. I couldn’t be more happy with that.”
