Oklahoma basketball: Sooner men double up on Mississippi Valley 82-43

The Oklahoma basketball men doubled the score on Mississippi Valley State in the opening half and kept their collective foot down for a full 40 minutes in rolling to an 82-43 victory at Lloyd Noble Center on Friday night.

Sophomore guard Otega Oweh led the Sooners with a 20-point performance on 8 of 11 shooting along with six rebounds and three steals. It was Oweh’s second straight double-digit scoring effort in as many games to open the 2023-24 season.

Oklahoma (2-0) shot 46 percent as a team while holding Mississippi Valley to just 32 percent for the game. Three other Sooners besides Oweh scored in double digits. Sam Godwin had a dozen points, Rivaldo Soares, who played at Oregon the past two seasons, had 11 and Utah Valley transfer Le’Tre Darthard added 10 more for the Sooners.

Five of the six transfers head coach Porter Moser added to the OU roster in the offseason saw action in Friday night’s game, contributing 34 points.

The Oklahoma men are back in action on Tuesday, hosting Texas State at 7 p.m. at Lloyd Noble Center.

Three takeaways from the Oklahoma win

• Oklahoma dominated the backboards, outrebounding Mississippi Valley State 51 to 23, including 20 offensive boards. The Sooners had made a special point of doing much better on the offensive glass after giving up 14 offensive rebounds to just five by OU in the season opener against Central Michigan.
• Mississippi Valley State committed just 11 turnovers in the game, but Oklahoma turned them into 23 points. OU also scored 38 points in the paint.
• A dozen Oklahoma players saw action in the game, and the Sooners received 30 points off the bench.