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From SoonerSports.com:
http://www.soonersports.com/sports/m-baskbl/archive/020211aaa.html
From SoonerSports.com:
http://www.soonersports.com/sports/m-baskbl/archive/020211aab.html
http://www.soonersports.com/sports/m-baskbl/archive/020211aaa.html
Postgame Notes
Oklahoma 73, Baylor 66
Feb. 2, 2011
• Oklahoma used a 24-3 second-half run over an 11-minute stretch to post a 73-66 home win over Baylor in a rare weekday afternoon game. The victory was OU’s fourth straight and improved its overall record to 12-9 and its Big 12 mark to 4-3 (tied for third place).
• Down 50-43, the Sooners held Baylor scoreless for 11 straight possessions and ran off 10 straight points for a 53-50 lead. After a Baylor field goal, OU rattled off another seven straight points to go ahead 60-52. A Bears free throw cut the margin to seven before the Sooners scored seven more in a row to go up 67-53 with 4:49 to go.
• Freshman guard Cameron Clark scored 25 points (one shy of his season high) and added seven rebounds, two assists and two steals while playing all 40 minutes. Clark was 11-for-19 from the field (both figures were career highs) and scored OU’s first seven points of the game.
• Clark’s seven highest scoring totals this season have come over the last 13 outings. He is averaging 13.4 points and 5.4 rebounds during the 13-game stretch while shooting .511 from the field.
• Clark has played at least 40 minutes six times this season, including four times in the last six outings.
• Sophomore Carl Blair turned in perhaps his best game as a Sooner, finishing with 19 points (his most in an OU uniform), five rebounds, seven assists and three steals. The point guard was 6-for-9 from the field and 6-for-7 from the free throw line. He was 4-for-4 at the free throw line in the final 24 seconds to help secure the win.
• Blair is 28-for-37 from the free throw line over the last four games (all wins). In his first 15 games this year, he was 16-for-26 from the charity stripe.
• Sophomore guard Steven Pledger finished with 10 points and a career-high-tying six assists. He has scored in double figures in 10 of OU’s 12 wins this year. Pledger played the entire game today and is averaging 38.5 minutes over the last six games.
• Starters scored 64 of the team’s 73 points today. During OU’s four-game winning streak, starters have accounted for 94 percent of the team’s points (287 of 305).
• Oklahoma committed 12 turnovers, tying their fewest in Big 12 action (also had 12 Saturday at Iowa State). Baylor committed 16, including 12 in the second half. OU outscored Baylor 21-15 off turnovers.
• The Sooners outrebounded Baylor 33-29. The Bears entered the game with a +7.4 rebounding margin on the year. OU had been outrebounded in each of its first six conference games.
• Oklahoma improved to 36-8 against Baylor all-time and to 18-3 in the series in Norman. The Sooners have won 31 of the last 34 overall meetings and 15 of the last 16 at Lloyd Noble Center.
• The Sooners held LaceDarius Dunn, the Big 12’s leading scorer at 21.1 points per contest entering the day, to 15 points.
• The game was originally scheduled for Tuesday night but was postponed to Wednesday afternoon (2 p.m. CT tip) due to a winter storm.
From SoonerSports.com:
http://www.soonersports.com/sports/m-baskbl/archive/020211aab.html
Head Coach Jeff Capel
Opening comment:
“First and foremost, I want to thank our fans for making it out in the bad weather that we’ve had. I want to thank all the people at OU for getting the arena ready, parking lot and just making it possible for us to play. I am very proud of our team. I thought we beat a very talented Baylor team today. I thought our defense in the second half was very good. I thought we had a really good awareness all game long. I thought Steven [Pledger] did a really good job. I thought our team defense did a really good job. We did a really good job of blocking out; that was a key point of emphasis for us. To outrebound this big, gigantic, athletic and long team speaks volumes about how far we have come. We had two great individual performances. Cameron [Clark] was terrific. I kept telling him every time he came back to a timeout about midway through the first half that from that point on, ‘you’re the best player on the floor.’ I thought he was today. I thought Carl Blair was tremendous, to have 19 points and seven assists and to really control the game for us and get the ball where we need it to get to. I am really proud of the win. I look forward to getting back in the gym tomorrow and getting better.”
On coming from behind:
“Our guys were excited about our defense. We were finally getting stops. Our rotations were better. I thought we were doing a better job with ball screen defense. I thought we were doing a better job talking and getting rebounds. We were excited at that point and excited about how we were defending.”
On coaching his team:
“I’ve really enjoyed coaching this team. Especially the past two weeks, just seeing how much better we have gotten and watching our guys grow and watching them believe in each other and themselves.”
On gaining energy from the win:
“It should give them a lot of energy. We have won four in a row. We’ve beaten good teams along the way; Texas Tech is as hot as anyone right now. Colorado is playing really well. Going to Iowa State, which is a tough place to play, and then beating this talented Baylor team should give us something. But we have to come back and work. We’ve got a tough one (Saturday at Oklahoma State). That’s the thing about this league; every time you step on the floor you are playing against someone good.”
On becoming a better team:
“I’ve always felt like sometimes the best lessons in life are learned when you fail, especially for guys who are hungry and want to get better. There comes a point where you don’t accept it anymore and you fight through it. I think we did that.”
On Cameron Clark’s performance:
“He does a really good job at finding gaps in zones. He basically is a mid-range player. He hit some 3’s today, but he is more of a mid-range player. In their zone, that’s where the gaps are -- in the short corner, at the high post and right in the middle. He did a great job of finding them, and our guys did a great job of finding him.”
Sophomore Guard Carl Blair
On OU’s 24-3 second-half run:
“I think we realized that we had to buckle down. In order to get the run we had to get stops. We played great defense. We felt that if we run our stuff on the offensive end we’ll score, as long as we don’t turn over the ball and keep the ball moving. The main thing in that little run is we just played defense. We just locked up, got rebounds and ran.”
On the play of Cameron Clark offensively early in the game:
“You can’t really put it into words. He carried us for a while. When everybody else wasn’t scoring, he kept making buckets, keeping us within distance so when we made our run we could take the lead.”
On Oklahoma defensively:
“We just went into the game trying to give them different looks. We would play man and then come down and play zone, just give the point guard a different look, running time off the clock so he’s got to see what he has to set up. At the end of the clock they’re rushing the shot. So it was the different looks we gave them. And the main thing when we go into the zone is that we have to box out.”
On the anticipation of Saturday’s Bedlam game at Oklahoma State:
“Man, we are excited. They are a good team so we have to go there and be focused. Coach (Capel) explained to us right before we broke it down in the locker room that this is one of the biggest games of the season for us. With the rivalry and everything, he just told us that we have to focus. We’re going to start tomorrow to get ready for them and were just excited about it. They’re a good team, it’s going to be a great atmosphere. I think the Iowa State game really helped us because the crowd was crazy out there so I think we’ll be more prepared for it and we’re excited about it and ready to go.”
Freshman Guard Cameron Clark
On when he felt during the game that this could be a special performance:
“I was looking forward to this game. We were supposed to play yesterday and we didn’t get to play. We were just ready for this game. My teammates got me open and I knocked down shots.”
On if he felt a performance like today coming on:
“Yeah, I would say so. We are all just trying to get wins and that’s the main thing.”
Baylor Head Coach Scott Drew
Opening statement:
“I thought you really have to credit the fans that showed up. Coach Capel has done a great job with this team. They continue to get better and better. They fight hard, they get better with each game and I thought they made some big plays down the stretch. Cameron Clark was a beast today. (Carl) Blair did a really good job controlling everything. I thought we played really good offensively for about 25 minutes today, 28 minutes. I credit OU for picking it up on the defensive end and forcing turnovers. We had 12 in the second half. That led to way too many easy points for them.”
On Oklahoma’s second-half run:
“I think we turned the ball over, took some bad shots and basically I think we just showed a lack of poise. We’d been making the extra pass, really playing disciplined ball. During that stretch we rushed things. We’re a young team with only one senior and, again, it didn’t help when (LaceDarius Dunn) got injured in the beginning of the game because I know that affected his play. We have to get much better at answering runs, feeling the other team’s momentum and being able to respond to it. I think we do that at home, but on the road we don’t handle it as well.”
On his team’s late comeback:
“We got on a run of our own and started getting some stops that we weren’t getting when they were pulling away.”
On the game being moved to Wednesday afternoon due to the winter storm:
“Coaches, players, we all have to adjust. During games you have to adjust, when you travel you have to adjust. Obviously we were here and you’d rather always play, but safety comes first for all of us. It’s a game. Life is more important than basketball, so safety comes first. I think Oklahoma made a great decision. Everything worked out well except we didn’t get the win.”
