GAME PREVIEW
Ranked No. 25 in the AP poll, Oklahoma (2-3) meets Nicholls State (0-7) in the fifth-place game of the Great Alaska Shootout Saturday at 5 p.m. CST. The contest, to be played at Sullivan Arena in Anchorage, will air on the Sooner Radio Network (KRXO FM 107.7 in OKC; KTBZ AM 1430 in Tulsa) with Ryan Ruocco and Mike Houck announcing. The game will be televised on Fox College Sports and on MASN (DirecTV Ch. 640 and Dish Network Ch. 432).
PREVIEWING NICHOLLS STATE
Southland Conference member Nicholls State enters Saturday’s game with a 0-7 record. The Colonels, who finished 20-11 last year and were picked to finish second this year in the Southland’s East Division by league coaches, are getting outscored by 20.7 points per contest. They’re coming off a 78-69 loss to Washington State Friday, a game in which NSU led 31-29 at halftime.
Junior guard/forward Anatoly Bose, who’s from Australia, leads the Colonels by averaging 16.7 points a contest. He has scored 20 or more points four times this season. Bose has made a team-high 18 treys and leads the squad with his 4.7 rebounds a contest. Sophomore guard Fred Hunter is averaging 12.4 points, 4.3 boards and 2.0 steals per contest. Last season’s Southland Conference Freshman of the Year, Hunter scored 25 points Friday against Washington State. Junior guard Maurice Foster supplies 12.2 points a contest and is shooting .543 from the field. No other player averages more than 4.9 points a game.
Head coach J.P. Piper, a 1991 Southeastern Louisiana graduate, is 53-100 (.346) in his sixth year with the Colonels.
OU-NICHOLLS STATE SERIES HISTORY
Oklahoma owns a 4-0 record against Nicholls State. The Sooners posted wins over the Colonels in the 1983-84 (107-51), 1994-95 (89-80), 1995-96 (87-47) and 1998-99 (64-44) seasons. All four games were played in Norman.
NOTEWORTHY
• OU's three-game non-conference losing streak is its first since the 1995-96 season when it started the year 1-3.
• The Sooners are giving up 86.0 points per contest over the last three outings. Opponents are shooting .457 from the field and .392 from 3-point distance.
• Sophomore guard Willie Warren is averaging 27.5 points and 5.0 assists this week in two Great Alaska Shootout games. He is 20-for-21 (.952) from the free throw line. On the season, Warren is averaging team highs of 20.4 points and 6.0 assists. He has scored 62 points from the field and 40 from the free throw line (averaging 8.8 free throw attempts).
• Warren is 40-for-44 from the free throw line for a sparkling .909 percentage. He has made and attempted 25 more free throws than the next closest Sooner.
• Freshman forward Tiny Gallon is averaging a double-double (11.8 points and 10.2 rebounds). His 15 boards in the season opener were the most in an OU freshman debut since Alvan Adams grabbed 28 caroms in the 1972-73 opener. u Freshman guard Steven Pledger is averaging 13.6 points in 23.6 minutes a contest. He is 15-for-35 from long distance (.429). The Chesapeake, Va., product has already surpassed the 20-point mark twice this season (21 vs. Mount St. Mary’s and 23 vs. Houston).
• The Sooners have made 29 more free throws than their opponents. OU is 106-for-127 (.835) from the foul line while foes are 77-for-102 (.755).
• Guards have accounted for 286 of Oklahoma’s 393 points (73 percent).
• The frosh foursome of Pledger (68), Gallon (59), Tommy Mason-Griffin (43) and Andrew Fitzgerald (20) has scored 48 percent of OU’s points (190 of 393).
UP NEXT
Oklahoma returns to Norman to host Arkansas on Wednesday at 7 p.m. CST. The Razorbacks, who beat the Sooners 96-88 in Fayetteville last year, enter weekend play with a 2-3 record.
