OU Basketball

Oklahoma Basketball: Sooners Rebound After Seven Straight Losses

by Chip Rouse

It’s been a while since the Oklahoma basketball men have tasted victory – eight games and almost a month, to be precise – but a season-high 27 points by Jordan Woodard fueled the Sooners to an 84-75 home victory over Texas Tech on Saturday.NCAA Basketball: NCAA Tournament-West Regional-Texas A&M vs Oklahoma

The win over the Red Raiders at Lloyd Noble Center snapped a losing skid of seven consecutive games by the Sooners and gave them their first Big 12 win after four straight losses. The 0-4 start in conference play was the worst by an Oklahoma men’s team in nearly 60 years.

The broad highlights of the game have been well chronicled by the mainstream sports media, but here are some other interesting observations from the win over Texas Tech that may not be as well known.

  • Jordan Woodard’s game-high 27 points was one point shy of his career high. He scored 18 of his 27 points in the final 12 minutes of the game. The Oklahoma senior has five 20-point scoring games this season.
  • Woodard now has 1,358 points for his career and has moved into 16th place on OU’s career scoring list, passing former Sooners Mookie Blaylock, David Johnson and Tony Crocker.
  • The Sooners had one of their best rebounding efforts of the season in the win over Texas Tech. Oklahoma outrebounded the Red Raiders 39-27, including grabbing 13 offensive rebounds.
  • OU scored 16 points off of Texas Tech turnovers and also recorded 11 second-chance points.
  • Rashard Odomes’ 24 points against the Red Raiders was a career high. He tallied 17 of those points in the opening half, when he hit seven of eight field-goal attempts.
  • Oklahoma led for 35:33 in the Texas Tech game; the Red Raiders led for just 2:26 in the game, and that was in the very early going.
  • The Sooners are 23-7 all-time vs. Texas Tech in games played in Norman. OU is 5-1 at Lloyd Noble Center under head  coach Lon Kruger.
  • The Oklahoma men’s next outing is Wednesday at West Virginia. The Mountaineers are ranked 10th in the Associated Press poll and are 15-2 on the season. West Virginia will be the third top-10 team the Sooners have faced in their last six games.