Sooners wake up in second half, cruise
All Oklahoma first-year head coach Porter Moser could say to describe halftime was he had a very aggressive conversation.
Sure, aggressive could be one word. After one of the most underwhelming performances in a long time to begin the game, Moser’s group found their answers and ended up winning going away in a 57-40 victory against visiting Houston Baptist on Wednesday evening at Lloyd Noble Center.
HBU was actually up 27-22 at halftime, stunning everybody in attendance before things returned back to normal in the second half.
OU outscored the Huskies 35-13 in the second half, but to break it down even more, it was a 30-5 advantage in the first 15 minutes of the second half.
“I’m equally low about the first half and equally high for the second half. No, I didn’t see it coming,” Moser said. “I was pleased because I wasn’t happy at half. They knew it. A fly on the wall could know it in the locker room. And they just came out and held them to five points in the first 15 minutes.”
For the second game in a row, the three-point shot simply wasn’t falling for the Sooners. OU was a woeful 1-of-12 from beyond the arc in the first half. Nobody is saying that’s good, but Moser was disappointed about that lack of success translating to the defensive end.
It can’t work that way. Offense can’t dictate how defense is played. But quality defense can lead to better offense, and that’s what happened in the second half for the Sooners. Leading the way was a couple of guys OU will rely on a lot this season in guards Elijah Harkless and Jordan Goldwire.
“I think he just challenged us to come out in the second half, be a whole different team, put that behind us and see if we could bounce back,” Harkless said. “Jordan being the head of the snake on defense and offense, he's the person with the ball most of the time. On defense, picking up and setting the tone. I think he did an amazing job of that.”
Harkless led OU with 13 points and nine rebounds, while Goldwire was the only other player in double figures with 11 points.
After the bizarre first half, OU opened the second half with an 18-0 run in the first 7:30 of the half to calm everybody down and be able to relax and execute the rest of the way.
Notes and observations
*Big games off the bench for Jacob Groves and C.J. Noland. It was Groves’ offense that was one of the only things working in the first half, and he was efficient with eight points, four rebounds and zero turnovers.
“I thought Jacob Groves, specifically, came in and gave us energy,” Moser said. He came in and got the first basket of the game. I thought he had tremendous energy with it. He had eight points in 12 minutes and four rebounds, had a steal, had no turnovers. I thought he was really good. I thought he was another guy who was a key to everything we did because we need that.”
Noland had all seven of his points in the second half.
*The defense did indeed start to create the offense. OU forced 21 turnovers and scored 32 points off of those.
“Well, we had to create some offense with our defense,” Moser said. “And if you're not shooting it well, like 1-for-12 the way we started it, we've got to get some stops so you can run. And when they shot 57 percent you're not getting many stops. So that's definitely what we want to do, it's part of what we want to do.”
*Next up for OU (5-1) begins a brutal four-game stretch at Central Florida, home vs. Florida and Butler and vs. Arkansas in Tulsa in two weeks. Up first? A showdown at UCF at 1 p.m. Saturday.