It was a nice night in Lloyd Noble Center last night. The crowd started building early. When my wife and I got there at about 5:15, the LNC already had students and the bottom bowl filling up more than usual. It was probably the best crowd of the year for the Sooner men. By the time the game started the students were there in a good showing filling several sections of seats on the north end of LNC.
The Sooners started quickly in the game. OU outscored and out played Providence 12-0 in the first four minutes of the game. But the Friars rose up to get back in the game in the next three minutes to get within 1 point as they trailed 12-11. Oklahoma quickly built a nine point lead over the next 2 minutes to lead 20-11. Providence slowly got back in the game over the next 5 minutes to trail by 3 at 20-23 with six minutes in the 1st half left. Those last 6 minutes was perhaps the best 6 minutes of the game as both teams played well and went into halftime with OU holding a 35-31 lead.
McCollum and Uzan led the Sooners with 13 and 7 points respectively with Godwin having a strong 1st half with 6 points. Some of the 1st half by both teams was a bit sloppy as there were 19 turnovers by the two teams combined. I think that was due to the defensive pressure applied by both teams. OU had 10 steals in the 1st half. The Friar leading trio of Hopkins (7 pts), Oduro (6 pts) and Carter (13 pts) led Providence as they matched the Sooner trio point for point in the first half. I though the key to the game would be if the Sooners could slow down those three players for Providence. In the first half they had 26 of their 46 points a game that they were averaging.
In the second half, Providence briefly took the lead at the 14:16 mark as they outscored the Sooners 11-6 in the first 6 minutes of play. Providence held the lead for all of 30 seconds before OU retook the lead on a Hugley IV offensive rebound and 2-point bucket in the paint at 43-42. In the next 6 minutes of play, OU extended their lead to 8 points and they outscored Providence 11-4 to lead 54-46. But the next four minutes were owned by Oklahoma as they outscored the Friars 11-0 to take a 19 point lead at 65-46. OU closed well and won going away 72-51 for an easy 21 point win over a good Providence team.
McCollum led all scorers with 19 points and added 7 rebounds also. Uzan had a double-double game with 17 points and 12 rebounds in his best game of the season. I think the game plan, especially in the second half, was to let Uzan go score against his defender which Uzan did well. Oweh, probably would not say hie played well, but he did score 13 points with 3 rebounds. His wide open 'three' in the second half with about 8 minutes left gave the Sooners an 8 point lead just before a media timeout. Godwin played very tough and strong inside. He scored 12 points on 5 of 6 shooting close to the bucket and added 4 rebounds. The rest of the Sooners added 11 points and 7 rebounds. I find it a bit surprising that the Sooner won the game by 21 over Providence with Moore, Hugley IV, Soares and Darthard only scoring 11 points. I would have thought that their play would be a much bigger part of the win by 21 points. The Sooner defense was once again key. The game was played a bit of a slower pace than I thought as both teams played strong defense. But OU just upped their game the second half. Maybe Coach Moser and his staff made some good decisions at halftime to help the cause.
The game boiled down to the trio for Providence being outplayed by the Tuesday night trio for OU of McCollum, Uzan and Oweh. The Sooner trio scored 49 points and had 22 rebounds. The Providence trio had 40 points and 13 rebounds. The Sooners held the Providence trio to 14 points in the second half. When you add in Godwin to the mix for the Sooners the difference is 61 points to 40 points which equals the 21-point victory. For the Sooners, the five starters (Godwin, Moore, McCollum, Oweh and Uzan) '+/-' stats had all five Sooners with at least a +17 in the game. Uzan had a +25 for the game.
Another key to the win was the 16 second chance points by the Sooners on 10 offensive rebounds as the Sooners outrebounded the Friars by 17 boards. Providence had 1 single offensive rebound in the game.
Here is the Sooner staff writers article about the win last night.
https://soonersports.com/news/2023/12/5 ... providence
The Sooners are a very good 8-0 with the win over Providence. The Sooners now own three wins over teams with a NET ranking of 80 or better. (Iowa, USC and Providence) The Sooners look ready to travel to Tulsa for their Saturday game against Arkansas at 3 PM. The Sooners have defeated a Big 10, a PAC 12 and a Big East team so far this year. They might as well add a SEC team to the mix with a win over Arkansas on Saturday. Arkansas has lost to UNC-Greensboro, Memphis and North Carolina (#14) while defeating Stanford and Duke (#7).
Great job by the Sooners last night, especially in the 2nd half!
Boomer Sooner!
