Oklahoma basketball: Takeaways from OU’s exhibition win over Oklahoma City

Oklahoma basketball fans got their first impression of what the 2022-23 season might look like as the Sooner men prepped for the season with a 89-53 exhibition win over the Oklahoma City Stars.

Sooner second-year head coach Porter Moser said at Big 12 Media Days last week in Kansas City that he liked the chemistry of this group of Sooners and the way they came together during the Sooners European exhibition tour this summer.

The European tour certainly gave this new group of Sooner players a head start on the coming season, which gets underway for real for Oklahoma next Tuesday as the Sooners host Sam Houston at Lloyd Noble Center.

Four OU players scored in double figures on Tuesday night as the Sooners turned a 15-point halftime advantage (39-24) into a 36-point win with a 50-point second half.

Nevada transfer Grant Sherfield, the Big 12 Preseason Newcomer of the Year, led all Oklahoma scorers with 14 points. Tanner Groves added a dozen points, including a couple of three-pointers, along with 11 rebounds, four of those on the offensive glass.

Freshmen newcomers Milos Uzan and Otega Oweh contributed 11 points apiece to the Oklahoma offensive attack.

Of the 12 Sooner players who saw action in the game, only five were on the OU roster a year ago.

Here are four main takeaways from the Sooners’ exhibition win:

Balanced scoring — Seven different Sooners scored at least 7 points

Seven different Oklahoma players scored at least seven points in the game and five of those were newcomers to the roster. A lot of the scoring was close to the basket. The Sooners scored a total of 50 points in the paint, much of that coming on 16 offensive rebounds that led to 21 second-chance points.

Bench contribution

Forty-six of the Sooners’ 89 points came from players off the bench, led by the 11 points each scored by freshmen guards Milos Uzan and Oretga Oweh. The OU bench outscored the Oklahoma City reserves by an overwhelming margin of 46-7.

Sooners pull down 56 rebounds, 33 more than their opponent

Oklahoma was especially aggressive off the boards, pulling down 56 rebounds (16 on offense) to just 33 by Oklahoma City.

Solid defense helped feed the OU offensive production

One of the things head coach Porter Moser wants to improve upon in 2022-23 is the Sooners’ defensive presence and intensity. If this one-game exhibition sample is any indication, OU has received the coach’s message. The Sooners were credited with seven steals, seven blocked shots, turned Oklahoma City over 13 times and, best of all, held the Stars to 27.1 percent shooting from the field for the game.