Oklahoma basketball: Three takeaways from Sooners’ upset of No. 14 Florida
By Chip Rouse
Three Sooner starters scored in double digits in leading OU to the biggest win of the Porter Moser era of Oklahoma basketball on Wednesday.
Oklahoma defeated No. 14 Florida 74-67, stretching its record to 7-1 to start the season. The Sooners were led by Tanner Groves, who scored 20 points to lead all scorers. Groves, who along with his brother, Jacob, transferred to OU from Eastern Washington, hit eight of his 11 field-goal attempts, including going two for five from three-point range.
Junior forward Jalen Hill contributed 18 points and senior guard Umoja Gibson added 15 as OU registered its first signature win under Moser, who for the previous decade was head coach at Loyola of Chicago.
The Sooners opened up the game with a 9-0 run. Florida didn’t score its first point until four minutes had passed. The Gators (6-1) whittled away at the OU early advantage, briefly taking the lead late in the opening half before the Sooners recovered to take a one-point, 37-36 lead to the locker room at the intermission.
The Sooners trailed for just 10 seconds in the second half, although the game remained close through the majority of the second stanza. Oklahoma’s largest lead was 10 points with just under four minutes remaining in the game.
Florida had four starters in double digits, lead by Phlandrous Fleming Jr. with 17. Colin Castleton added 14 points along with 11 rebounds and four blocked shots. The loss was the first of the season for the Gators after six straight wins.
Former Oklahoma head coach Lon Kruger was honored at halftime. He retired after last season after over 30 seasons as a college head coach, the last 10 of which were at OU.
Three takeaways from the win over Florida:
Balanced scoring by the Oklahoma starters
Oklahoma featured a balanced scoring attack with Tanner Groves (20), Jalen Hill (18) and Umoja Gibson (15) leading the way. The five Sooner starters (Jordan Goldwire with eight points and Elijah Harkless with seven points) accounted for all but six of the Sooners’ 74 total points.
Another solid defensive performance
Porter Moser wants the Sooners to create offense from their defense, and they did a good job of that in the win over the formidable Gators. OU scored 19 points off of Florida turnovers and registered 10 fast-break points. The Sooner defense held Florida to 42-percent shooting from the field and just 32 percent in the second 20 minutes. The Sooners would particularly strong guarding the perimeter Florida shooters. The Gators were just 4 of 24 from long range against the OU defense.
Larger than normal crowd was a huge difference
The attendance for the game was reported at close to 10,000, which is large for a nonconference game. Porter Moser has been pushing since he took over the Sooner men’s basketball reigns earlier this year to get more fans and students to the Lloyd Noble Center for games.
Florida head coach Mike White acknowledged in his postgame comments that the crowd was obviously a factor in the outcome of the game.
“I think it was just for us, for our guys, for the fans, for the basketball fans here, for the Sooners,” Moser told reporters after the game. “To get the people into this arena — come on in. This thing could be electric.”