Oklahoma Basketball: Baylor Buries Youthful Sooners
By Chip Rouse
About the only thing positive about the Oklahoma basketball conference opener with Baylor was that it was played at home.
And that wasn’t particularly positive if you were one of the 7,000 faithful who witnessed first hand one of the worst home losses Oklahoma has experienced at home in quite some time.
Baylor completely dominated the young Sooners, building a 19-point halftime advantage and adding to it in the second half for 76-50 victory and improve its unbeaten record to 13-0.
Oklahoma was without its leading scorer and senior leader Jordan Woodard, who missed his second consecutive game with a groin injury. That left the young Sooners with a lineup that contained mostly freshman and sophomores, and the inexperience was evident from the very start.
The Sooners shot a horrific 26 percent in the opening half and just 33 percent for the game. Christian James led Oklahoma in scoring with just 11 points. Meanwhile, three Baylor players scored in double figures, led by Jonathan Motley’s 19 points.
Oklahoma was outplayed in every phase of the game, something that is going to have to get corrected quickly or this could turn into a long and very difficult season for the team that won 29 games a year ago and advanced all the way to the Final Four.
The Sooners never led in the contest and trailed by 34 points with under seven minutes remaining in the game.
Baylor’s size and length played huge dividends in close as the Bears doubled up the Sooners in points in the paint 38 to 16.
The Bears shot 48 percent from the floor and outrebounded Oklahoma 46 to 30. The Sooners were 8 of 23 from three-point range for 35 percent, slightly better than their overall shooting percentage, and they also hurt themselves at the free-throw line, making just 8 of 15 from the charity stripe.
If this is a taste of what Lon Kruger’s team can expect in Big 12 competition, things are likely to get much worse before they get better.
The Sooners next four conference opponents – TCU, Kansas State, Kansas and Texas Tech – have a combined record of 46-5.