SoonerScoop Sights & Sounds: OU 74, Cincinnati 71 OT
For the first three months, OU basketball didn’t have to worry about any injuries. But the last three weeks have been interesting for head coach Porter Moser.
Rivaldo Soares (ankle), John Hugley (knee) and now one more?
The Sooners were thrown another curveball Tuesday, playing without guard Javian McCollum because of a shoulder injury suffered Monday.
And after scoring five points in the first eight minutes against Cincinnati (down 18-5), it looked bleak. But the guts, for lack of better term, were on full display.
OU rallied to earn the 74-71 overtime win vs. the Bearcats. Earning win No. 20 in the process, the first 20-win regular season since the Buddy Hield days.
A leave-it-all-on-the-floor type of effort, and the only kind OU could have if it wanted any chance of winning.
“You asked me how the locker room was after the Houston game and I said gutted,” Moser said. “These guys are investing. They’re so passionate about winning. And it was emotional in there just now. With joy, with exhaustion. I said before the game, I said sometimes after a game you say, God, if we could have got one more basket, one more stop, one more rebound, you know?
“Before this game I said tonight we’re gonna get one more stop. We’re gonna get one more rebound. We’re gonna get one more basket. And those guys just fought so hard with crazy circumstances. I’m just happy for them because they left it all on the floor tonight.”
Three guys rose to the occasion in Rivaldo Soares, Le’Tre Darthard and Jalon Moore. They simply wouldn’t let OU lose.
Soares had 16 points and nine rebounds. Darthard had a team-high 18 points and hit a clutch 12-for-14 from the free throw line. And Moore added 16 points and seven rebounds.
If the dream was to go dancing in the NCAA Tournament, this win, in the eyes of most, just solidified that. Doesn’t matter that OU’s last two wins have been in overtime. You just win in March, worry about looking pretty another day. And OU did that – it won… somehow.
“I took belief away from it,” Soares said. “Even in the Houston game, just every timeout, every huddle—just that sense of belief and… I don’t even got too many words. It’s inexplicable, this feeling with your brothers, I started tearing up coming into the locker room, because last home game—that just meant so much.”
The Sights & Sounds from SoonerScoop video editor Eddie Radosevich on a gutty senior night victory for OU.
