Oklahoma basketball: OU serves up rude welcome to former assistant

Another Oklahoma basketball win. Another stellar offensive display by freshman Trae Young. It’s becoming a boiler-point narrative for the Sooners this season.

The Sooners improved to 6-1 on the season, defeating former OU assistant coach Steve Henson and his University of Texas-San Antonio Roadrunners 97-85, with Young leading the way with 28 points in 32 minutes of action.

The OU freshman point guard was just two of 11 from beyond the three-point arc, but shot 9 of 22 from the floor and was nearly perfect from the free-throw line (eight of nine) in matching his season scoring average.

It was the seventh consecutive game in which the Norman-born-and-raised Young led Oklahoma in scoring. His 28 points against UTSA marked the first time in the last four games, the Sooner super freshman has scored fewer than 30 points. He missed a layup with just over two minutes to go in the game that would have given his 30 points and made him the first Oklahoma player since Wayman Tisdale in 1983-84 to score 30 in four consecutive games.

Young’s contributions to the victory over UTSA weren’t  limited to just putting the ball in the basket. He also assisted others in doing so, delivering eight of the Sooners’ 15 assists in the game.

In addition to Young’s 28 points, Christian James put in 14 and junior center Jumuni McNeace had a career high 15 points, with 11 of those coming after halftime.

Oklahoma let an 11-point  lead nearly slip away late in the first half and into the second before the Sooners regained control of the contest.

Next up for OU is a road trip to Southern California to take on 25th-ranked USC as part of a college triple-header at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Here is what you should know about the Sooners’ win over UTSA:

• Trae Young wasn’t the only player struggling from three-point range on Monday night. The two teams shot a combined 79 treys in the game, connecting on just 24 of them (30.4 percent). The Sooners put up 42 three-point attempts, making 13 of them.
• The Sooners scored half of their 97 points (48) in the paint, probably the result of shooting so poorly from three-point range.
• Oklahoma won the battle of the boards, outrebounding UTSA 54-47.
• OU scored 21 of its points on second-chance opportunities, and 20 points off of turnovers.
• Ninety-one of the 182 total points scored in the game were from players coming off the bench. The Sooners’ bench scored 37 points, led by 15 from Jamuni McNeace.
• Oklahoma shot 40.5 percent in the first half (15 of 37) and 50.0 percent in the second half 22 of 44) – 45.7 percent overall for the game.
• Defensively, OU limited the UTSA Roadrunners to 38.3-percent shooting for the game.
• Senior Khadeem Lattin had 11 rebounds, seven coming on the offensive glass.