December 19, 2020 Issue, Page 4 of 8

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Sports December 19, 2020 Oklahoma holds off Oral Roberts in physical battle Joe Buettner, The Norman Tran- learned it can rely on its defense chance points on two offensive day's nonconference tilt. Reaves’ 16 second-half points points. script to win a not-so-pretty game. rebounds, made 7 of 18 layup “We were more physical,” became important with ORU OU looked the part ofa team “Good battle,’ said OU coach attempts and mustered to score Manek said. “We focused more outscoring OU by four points in that could prevail with more Oklahoma didn’t make its Lon Kruger, whose team won just eight of its 22 first-half on rebounding, just being the the last 20 minutes and Gibson than just its offense, which has Wednesday home game much of the rebounding battle 48-37 points in the paint. more physical team and ready unable to add anything to his shot nearly 40% from 3-point a spectacle. and limited ORU to six assists. Manek, who's 6-foot-9, and to play. ... We put a big emphasis, total after the break. ‘Thanks to two first-half free land through five games. Sure, Brady Manek and “thought ORU’s played really Kur Kuath, a 6-foot-10 for- on blocking out, hitting them throws, Reaves finished with a Wednesday's meeting be- Alondes Williams traded rim- well on the year, and I thought ward and OU’s other frontcourt first and I think we did that.” team-best 18 points, part of a tween in-state schools came to- shaking dunks — both received our guys in the first half, espe- starter, took advantage of the Indeed, OU got out to a 9-2 near triple-double thanks to 10 gether just two weeks ago when a lob from Austin Reaves, Wil- cially on the defensive end, dida smaller ORU lineup. lead four minutes into the rebounds and seven assists. OU’s nonconference slate was liams had another slam in tran- terrific job of making ORU earn Manek still stretched the game, a 33-20 lead with four “Austin coming alive there hit by COVID cancellations. sition and Manek had a fero- everything” floor, making 3-of-9 3-point at- minutes to go in the first half in the second half was a really Kruger has emphasized ex- cious putback. tempts and scoring a team sec- and a 40-22 lead by intermis- good stretch,” Kruger said. “... ‘The Golden Eagles (3-4) were perience and winning an ugly Buta below-average shooting mostly helpless in the opening ond-leading 17 points. Defense sion. On a night where it didn’t look game is sure to carry plenty of night from both programs cul- 20 minutes, shooting 21.2% was a major priority to OU, During that 20-minute like he had much going early, lessons. minated in a 79-65 Sooner vic- from the floor and 12.5% from however, with ORU averaging stretch, Reaves went 0 for 3 he stuffed the stat sheet pretty “Overall, a good opportunity tory over Oral Roberts. the perimeter. Oral Roberts was 87 points and shooting 45.3% from the floor. It didn’t matter well.” to play a good club,” Kruger Perhaps OU (4-1, 1-0 Big 12) also held to just two second- from the field entering Wednes- with the Sooners still finding The Sooners also got eight an early advantage, powered points and six rebounds from said, “to learn from this and by Umoja Gibson's 14 points Williams. Freshman Trey bounce back with practice the off the bench and Manek’s 10 Phipps had seven points off the next couple of days and prepare Umoja Gibson heats up in points in the first half. bench and Kuath hada quiet six for another one on Saturday.” Sooners’ win over Oral Roberts Oklahoma State basketball: 3 takeaways Joe Buettner, The Norman Tran- ence USA third-best 86 3-point- their earliest conference game script ers. since 1982, when they opened from Cowboys’ 77-76 loss to TCU Notable —Cleared for take- the season against Big Eight op- Need to know off: Junior guard Elijah Har- ponent Iowa State. Jacob Unruh, The Oklahoman turnovers on two straight pos- He has quietly been the Cow- Umoja Gibson found his shot Kless made his OU debut on —Sherri Coale won her sessions. Kalib Boone had a go- boys’ most consistent player early and helped Oklahoma Wednesday. 500th career game in last year's STILLWATER — TCU wasn’t ahead putback. this season. build an early lead against Oral Harkless, a program new- meeting in Lawrence, a 94-82 giving Cade Cunningham the ‘Then Williams had a steal that Roberts that it never lost. comer via Cal State Northridge, victory in which the Sooners Space. led to a huge one-handed break- And he also cemented his Gibson, who scored all 14 missed OU's first four outings came back from a 22-point half- ‘The Horned Frogs saw OSU's away dunk. place in the Cowboys’ record of his points in the first half, due to NCAA transfer rules. The time deficit. superstar make a game-winning ‘And when Cunningham did book with his two steals, reach- cooled off in the second but the NCAA passed a blanket waiver —The Sooners have won 3-pointer Saturday at Wichita. return, he went into attack ing 100 for his career. He’s the Sooners still prevailed 79-65. on Wednesday, however, for five of the last six meetings in ‘The entire country did. mode. He scored nine of his 17 Gibson's total, which sur- all Division I transfer student- Lawrence and is 41-32 all-time This time, Cunningham's he- points in the final stretch of the program’s seventh player to passed his season single-game athletes to compete this season. against the Jayhawks. Kansas roics fell short. game, including seven straight reach 250 assists, 350 rebounds high, gave OU a lift with Austin Harkless checked into the holds a 17-16 edge at Allen Cunningham missed a con- at one point. and 100 steals and first since Reaves and De'Vion Harmon ame with 14:24 left in the first Fieldhouse. tested jumper as time expired Cunningham ultimately fin- Marcus Smart. going a combined 0 of 6 from lf. He didn't score but record- PROJECTED STARTERS Wednesday night in the Cow- ished with eight rebounds and Poor first half the floor the first 20 minutes. ed four rebounds and an assist. Oklahoma (0-2) boys’ 77-76 loss to TCU to open three assists. ‘The Cowboys got off toa slow "Great to see that from Moj," —One-sided: Following OU's Pos. — Player— Ht. — Cl. — Big 12 play inside Gallagher-Iba But even a sneak solid game start. OU coach Lon Kruger said. "He Wednesday victory, it's won 16Pts. — Reb. Arena. from Cunningham — wasn’t just works so hard. He's a shoot- consecutive games against Oral F — Mandy Simpson — 6-0 TCU's RJ Nembhard, the Big enough to overcome some of the ‘TCU led by as much as 13 in er, he's a good shooter. and he Roberts. The Sooners’ winning —Sr..—8.5—115 12 Player of the Week, instead Cowboys’ shortcomings. the opening half, shooting lights does other things well, too. But streak against the Golden Ea- F — Madi Williams — 6-0 — hit the winning shot with 7.6 OSU shot just 42% overall. out while the Cowboys’ offense him making shots was the least gles is their longest against any Jr.—215—45 seconds remaining. It also made just 12 of 20 free struggled. of our concern." Division I opponent. F — Tatum Veitenheimer — ‘The Cowboys are 6-1 on the throws in the second half. OSU shot just 38.2% overall Gibson, the first-year trans- OU is a combined 186-113 year heading into Sunday's road Iced over Isaac Likekele was the Cow- in the opening half, including 5-8 —Jr.—3.5—4.5 fer via North Texas, knocked against the state's other three G—Taylor Robertson — 5-7 matchup at Texas. down his first three 3-pointers Division I programs — Okla- —Jn.—9.5 —3.0 But here are three takeaways boys’ most important player last making just 1 of 7 3-pointers. and ended the the first half with homa State, Tulsa and Oral G — Gabby Gregory — 6-0 from the win over TCU. season. OSU also made just 9 of 20 la- 4-of-5 makes from the perim- Roberts. —So. — 15.5 —4.0— Cowboys fight back ‘That hasn't changed. He's just yups. eter. Next The Sooners are sched- Kansas (3-1) OSU superstar Cade Cun- beena little more under the ra- The Cowboys did close the half Inhis last four games, Gibson uled to play host to Houston Pos. — Player— Ht. — Cl. — ningham was on the bench for dar than expected. was just 5 of 17 from beyond Baptist at 4 p.m. on Saturday. 4 minutes and 6 seconds in the ina strong way, using a 10-2 run But TCU got the full “Ice” ef- the arc and was averaging 4.8 The game will air on FOX Sports Pts. — Reb. second half. to get within five behind anoth- fect, especially in the second points. Southwest.Ryan Aber, The Okla- F — Tina Stephens — 6.2 — When he left the game with half. er burst of energy from Walker, His first-half success fueled homan Sr.—10.8— 6.0 11:10 remaining, the Cowboys who finished with 12 points. Likekele finished with 10 a 40-22 halftime advantage for F — Ioanna Chatzileonti — trailed 52-50. points, nine rebounds and six But Cunningham had his the Sooners, who shot 43.8% OUat Kansas 6-2—Fr.—10.3—10.0 When he returned, OSU led assists. from the floor and held the When: 7 p.m. Thursday G—Aniya Thomas — 5-7 — 61-55. He was all over the court on worst scoring half of the season, Golden Eagles to 21.2% shoot- Where: Allen Fieldhouse in Jn —113—35 Without their superstar, the both ends of the floor, whether scoring only on a reverse layup ing in the opening 20 minutes. Lawrence, Kansas G— Holly Kersgieter — 5-10 Cowboys made a huge run that it was poking the basketball with just less than 8 minutes Gibson, a 6-foot-1 junior, TV: ESPN+ ultimately decided the game. remaining. He missed his other away atop the ie y, running fast- played more to the expectations Radio: _KOKC 1520 AM, —So.—17.5—6.5 G — Brooklyn Mitchell — Isaac Likekele got going. breaks or getting to the basket eight shots. he set during two seasons with KREF 99.3 FM/1400 AM He hada steal. Then he set up in the low post. North Texas. He averaged 14.5 ‘Three things to know 5-6 —Jr.—3.3 —3.0— Rondel Walker for a tying layup Likekele was instrumental in TCU, meanwhile, shot 46.9% points with the Mean Green —The Sooners open up Big —Assists with 9:29 left. Bryce Williams the Cowboys’ big stretch that ul- overall and made 6 of 13 last season and made a Confer- 12 play against the Jayhawks, Ryan Aber, Staff writer and Avery Anderson III forced timately decided the game. 3-pointers. Oklahoma State recreates signing day recruits in Nintendo game Scott Wright, The Oklahoman day when every college is trying lar in the late 1980s and early In sticking with that throw- then it became, ‘Oh, hey, we're were going to pull out, but they to top everyone else. 1990s — that morphed into the back theme, Vessels came up gonna make this our whole pulled a trick out of their sleeve, STILLWATER — For most of Each school tries to do some- player's actual highlight video. with the idea of recreating plays theme.” for sure.” the last six weeks, Heath Ves- thing creative to recognize their At the end of the clip, an im- from Tecmo Bowl back in early ‘That's when Vessels went to sels’ life has been consumed by new signees, often tying into age of Barry Sanders welcomes November. work on the sprites and the rest Another of OSU's graphic de- sprites. popular culture. the player to the Cowboy fam- “Basically in a day, I came up of the animation needed to pull signers, Jordan Smith, built web No, not the drink. In case you weren't surfing so- ily. Twitter views for the vid- with how to make cutouts of the off the Tecmo Bowl Cowboys. pages for each player like the “Sprite” is the graphic design- cial media on Wednesday, OSU eos, in total, were climbing into old 8-bit, 16-bit look to help sell He had to cut them out, provide er term for each of those little released a video for each of its the hundreds of thousands by the idea,” Vessels said. “And I ac- color — black helmets, orange bio pages used on the Cowboys’ Tecmo Bowl football players signees that opened with some Wednesday afternoon. tually ended up making a Tecmo jerseys, black pants — and cre- online roster. Except in place of Vessels recreated for Oklahoma 1980s-style graphics, biographi- OSU had been promoting the Bowl version of Boone Pickens ate the animation. the headshot, he created video State’s signing day social media cal information on the player, 2021 signing class by using im- Stadium, with the logo at mid- “Tt was pretty much nonstop,” game covers in mock-up styles campaign that was a huge hit then a mock-up play from Tec- agery of Sanders, the school’s field, the end zones, everything. Vessels said. “But it was fun. I of 1980s games with the player's with players and gained national mo bowl — the Nintendo foot- greatest No. 21 — and greatest “It was a fun idea that I would come home from work, face in block animation. attention for its creativity on a ball game that was wildly popu- player — of all time. thought was pretty cool, and pull out my laptop, hang out with my dog on my couch, watch “Heath had all the head shots some sports and leisurely go at of everybody, and he passed Five takeaways from preseason loss to Bulls it. Before I knew it, I had 200- plus different Photoshop files those along to me,” Smith said. that I had to then turn into ani- “I went in and did the box-art mation. look for everybody, so every- Joe Mussatto, The Oklahoman Each of the Thunder's starters guy out there.” off the bench. Jackson shot “Tt didn’t even feel like work body has their own unique video played at least 15 minutes, al- Horford played 15 minutes in 3-of-4 from 3-point range. at all. This would be something Billy Donovan's Bulls beat the most exclusively in the first half. his Thunder preseason debut. “It's not only the scoring T would normally do with my off game cover art to go along with Thunder 124-103 Wednesday Jackson started the second half He tallied 15 points and seven punch,” Daigneault said, “but time, just playing around with everything. night in the first of two Thun- and played 24 minutes. rebounds. He shot 6-of-10 from there's definitely a spirit and a that kind of stuff.” “[m old enough that I played der-Bulls preseason games that Bazley aggressive the field and 2-of-4 from 3-point motor to him.” As for the plays he designed these games growing up. Being will be played at Chesapeake En- Bazley was solid in his 19 range. Rookie watch for the sprites to run, he based able to go back and explore some ergy Arena this week. first-half minutes. Chicago backcourt Aleksej Pokusevski cooled them off actual plays the Cow- Here are five takeaways: ‘The second-year forward fin- ‘The Bulls won the battle of the down in his second preseason boys ran this season. of those styles and relive a little Welcome back ished through contact on a drive backcourts. game. The 7-foot forward was The videos were a hit with bit of that, that was pretty cool.” Al Horford, Luguentz Dort, to the rim in the first quarter, Zach LaVine scored 24 points 2-of-11 from the field and 1-of-6 players, even though most of For as much as the designers Darius Bazley and Justin Jack- and he connected with Horford in 25 minutes on an efficient from 3-point range. them had never played Tecmo enjoyed the work, the goal was son all started Wednesday night for a nice dump-off pass out of 9-of-14 line. Coby White led all But Pokusevski secured seven Bowl before. The game was at to make it special for the newest after missing the Thunder's first the pick-and-roll in the second scorers with 27 points. White, rebounds and pushed the ball least popular enough that they'd preseason game in San Antonio quarter. who scored 35 points against in transition, which pleased seen videos of it or recalled the group of Cowboys, because the last week. Bazley finished with seven the Thunder in February, shot Daigneault. recent Bo Jackson television players are the stars of signing “We were trying to gas those points, two rebounds and two 5-of-8 from 3-point range. “We have skilled frontcourt commercials that used the Tec- day. guys to start the game,” Thun- assists on 3-of-5 shooting. der coach Mark Daigneault said. Horford’s debut The two Bulls guards com- bined for eight assists and eight players,” Daigneault said, “and mo“That Bowl graphics. was something crazy. “It’s just a really fun way to you're faster when you get off I definitely the glass, and you push and you running backenjoyed that,” said “Just from a conditioning stand- Gilgeous-Alexander attracted rebounds. make it stand out for these point we're coming into these a crowd in the paint before kick- Gilgeous-Alexander had a signee Jaden Nix- guys,” Vessels said. “It’s prob- games with pretty specific ob- ing out to Horford, who was strong start for the Thunder, look to advance. I thought he ‘on from Frisco, Texas. “I love jectives of what we're trying to open near the top of the arc. finishing with 12 points, three had some nice advance passes throwback stuff like that, and ably the biggest day oftheir lives get done, and one of them is just The Thunder's new center rebounds and three assists. tonight ... He didn’t shoot it as up to this point and we want to then to be apart of it, that was getting those guys in some real drained a 3-pointer to beat the But Dort, making his pre- well as he did the other night, amazing. I loved how they did make it really special for them, game shape for real minutes. halftime buzzer. season debut, was 0-of-7 from but I thought he played signifi- that.” and do something that will That was the intention with “We saw what we already the field with four of his misses cantly better.” ‘And it was a surprise the play- stand out and draw attention to most of those guys that started knew,” Daigneault said. “He's coming from behind the arc. Fellow rookie Theo Maledon ers didn’t see coming. had 11 points, four rebounds, them. the game.” got great poise. He was a stabi- Frank Jackson was the Thun- “It was a shock,” said Edmond Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was lizing factor for us in the second der’s most productive guard. He two assists and two steals in a Santa Fe defensive end Collin “We wanted to make them the fifth starter. quarter. He’s kind of a security scored 15 points in 20 minutes team-high 30 minutes. Oliver. “I didn’t know what they have a memorable signing day.”