After a pretty big gauntlet of games to start December, everybody knew Oklahoma basketball was closing the month with what felt like a couple of gimmes.
The Sooners made them that way, too. Doing exactly what you’re supposed to do in games against overmatched opponents, OU took care of business once again in a 72-48 victory against visiting Alcorn State on Wednesday evening.
The Sooners are 10-2 and begin Big 12 conference play on New Year’s Night vs. Kansas State.
Broken record time, but it’s true. It was the OU defense that set the tone early and often, and the Sooners never looked back.
As nice as OU was looking defensively, it was a slog, at least initially, on offense. Good shot after good shot but none of them falling.
What OU has been able to do, though, is not let shooting affect how it approaches the game. Ethan Chargois hit the first 3-pointer for the Sooners, and then Mo Gibson nailed three in the final minutes and just like that, OU was up 34-15 at halftime and able to go deep into the bench in the second half.
“Sometimes in a slow start, you don’t get good shots,” Moser said. “I was looking at our staff, started out 0-7 from three, and I thought we got a ton of good shots. It wasn’t slow in terms of what you might think slow is. Man, they’re stagnant. It wasn’t like that.
“We just started out missing a bunch of shots. we were up 8-2, I believe, and we’re guarding. Mo started 0-4. Tanner missed a n open three. E.J. missed a wide open three. Everybody took a good shot, just weren’t making them. Actually, the one that got us going was Ethan made one, that was the first three of the game, I believe. I was kinda pleased with how we moved the ball most of time.”
Moser downplayed how big of a role the bench could be in a game like this, but it worked out like most thought and saw OU rest the starters and see what some of the other guys could do.
It starts with Bijan Cortes. The freshman point guard continues to make sound decisions. Six points doesn’t sound like a lot, but it was the first time Cortes pursued his shot.
“I thought Bijan did some really good things. He had two assists in 14 minutes. He did some really good things in moving the ball,” Moser said. “I thought he had a couple of hockey assists. He’s looking more comfortable. They pressed the whole game. And I thought he did a good job of running the offense out there as he has been doing more and more.”
The hallmark of this team remains the defense. The starting five brings it every time they’re grouped together. When Moser goes to the bench, it has been iffy.
Wednesday was not one of those iffy moments. It didn’t matter how deep into the bench Moser went, the guys played hard defensively.
Those types of things are indicators of what Moser is trying to do in Norman is working.
“I thought Ethan played really well. He’s been getting minutes. Basically, looking at guys like Jacob, Bijan, C.J., those guys have to continue to get better and deeper. What I did see is when they came in, I didn’t see a big drop-off defensively. When we start making subs, our defense has gone down. That wasn’t the case tonight. I thought our subs continued to guard well.”
Gibson led the way with 17 points, including making a season-high five 3-pointers. Jordan Goldwire added 11 points, while Tanner Groves had 10. Nobody played more than 27 minutes and all 13 scholarship players saw action.
