Team Notes
No. 10 seed Oklahoma lost 70-55 to No. 7 seed San Diego State in a second-round NCAA Tournament South Region game in Philadelphia, Pa. The Sooners finished the season with a 20-12 record while the Aztecs improved to 23-10 and advanced to Sunday's third round against No. 15 seed Florida Gulf Coast University.
Oklahoma fell to 36-27 all-time in the NCAA Tournament. This was the program's 27th appearance (23rd in the last 31 years).
With tonight's game, OU's Lon Kruger became to first coach in Division I history to coach five different programs in the NCAA Tournament (Kansas State, Florida, Illinois and UNLV).
Kruger fell to 14-14 all-time in the NCAA Tournament and to 8-6 in the opening round. He had won five of his last seven opening-round games prior to tonight.
OU led 33-31 at halftime (its 10th halftime lead in the last 11 games) but was outscored 39-22 after the break. The Sooners shot .370 from the field after halftime but converted on just three of their final 15 attempts (.200).
The Sooners held a 19-17 rebounding advantage at halftime but were outboarded 23-10 in the second half (40-29 on the game).
With the contest going back and forth the first eight minutes, OU went ahead 15-14 with 12:03 remaining in the first half and didn't trail again until the 17:15 mark of the second half (38-36). The Sooners led by as many as nine points (23-14 at the first half's 9:40 mark thanks to a 12-0 run).
With the game tied at 48, San Diego State went on an 8-0 run to take a 56-48 lead with 7:55 remaining. OU got no closer than five points the rest of the way.
Eight Sooners scored on the night but Romero Osby was the only one to reach double figures. Junior forward Amath M'Baye scored eight points and freshman guard Isaiah Cousins netted six (his most in nine games).
The Sooners finished the game 5-for-21 from 3-point range (.238). Over the season's final three contests, OU went 8-for-55 (.145) from long distance.
OU's loss was its first against San Diego State, dropping its record in the series to 3-1. The teams had not met since the 1974-75 season.
Senior F Romero Osby
Osby scored a game-high 22 points on 9-for-15 field goal shooting and pulled down a team-high eight rebounds in his final game. It marked the sixth straight game Osby led the team in scoring and the 20th time in the last 25 outings he shot at least 50 percent from the field. He tied a career high with two 3-pointers (on three attempts) and finished the year 9-for-17 from behind the arc (.529).
Senior G Steven Pledger
Pledger battled foul trouble and played just 22 minutes. He was 1-for-6 from 3-point range but still finished his career with 249 treys, ranking him second on OU's career list (10 behind Terry Evans).
