Everybody knows players and coaches take it one game at a time. It sounds cliché, but for the most part, it’s pretty accurate.
The optics, though, for Oklahoma basketball were looking bleak late in the first half. Too early to say the season was hanging in the balance, but the Sooners made sure they head into the Christmas break on a positive note with a 53-52 win against visiting Central Florida on Saturday afternoon at Lloyd Noble Center.
UCF had a chance for the game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer, but OU defended it well to end its two-game losing streak.
“Guys were great defensively,” head coach Lon Kruger said. “Obviously, it wasn’t going to happen on the offensive end. Thought defensively was clearly the reason we got back into the ballgame and ended up winning it.”
OU limited UCF to 20 points in the second half on 8-of-32 shooting (25 percent) and had to overcome a 12-point deficit in the first half to earn the win.
The victory puts the Sooners at 8-3, and though it’s just a one-game difference between 7-4, it feels like a heck of a lot more when you take into consideration the last month. And especially the last week.
Before Saturday, OU’s previous home game was Nov. 21. A month straight away from Norman had seen the team take some lumps, including road losses to Wichita State and Creighton in the last seven days.
The team has been riding senior Kristian Doolittle throughout this recent stretch, and he had to come up big in the second half. Saddled with two fouls for the majority of the first half, Doolittle only had two points. He finished the game with 12 points and eight rebounds.
If it wasn’t Doolittle, it was junior Brady Manek. He led the team with 13 points and 10 rebounds and had a crucial three-pointer to give OU a 53-48 lead with 1:21 left.
Doolittle and Austin Reaves both played the entire second half as OU could simply not afford to put those guys on the bench for any period of time.
Rest up and get ready to do it again.
“Only message I'll have over the break is to get as much as rest as possible,” Doolittle said. “We won't have the luxury of having this many days in between games, especially when conference starts. I would just say the focus that we had in the second half is something we have to have and sustain throughout the whole game.”
Notes
*Kruger attempted to shake up the starting lineup by going with Alondes Williams instead of De’Vion Harmon. The reasoning was for a scoring punch, but it didn’t pan out with Williams only scoring three points. Harmon, to his credit, played well in the second half, scoring all five of his points with two assists.
“Alondes will bounce back. Challenged him to shoot it a couple of times there, got in his head a little bit,” Kruger said. “He’ll be fine. He’s very skilled, very talented. He’ll bounce back I thought De’Vion came in and gave us a big lift. Big lift in the second half and much needed, for sure.”
*Very rare indeed as UCF went the entire first half without getting a foul called against it. Refs let both teams play, however, as OU only had nine fouls for the entire game. The Knights had six.
“Rare for any team not to have a foul called,” Kruger said. “But again, we weren't attacking very much. We weren't giving them much chance to foul us on most occasions. But it's rare, for sure.”
