Oklahoma Basketball: Sooners avoid scare by William & Mary at home

Oklahoma Basketball had a bit of a rough time against William & Mary, needing almost all 40 minutes to pull away.

Going into their game against William & Mary on Monday, Oklahoma Basketball was 3-0, coming off of some impressive wins over Minnesota and Oregon State, and was starting to gain some national attention, as they received some top 25 votes.

Their opponent, William & Mary was also undefeated with wins over High Point, American, Wofford, and Hampton coming into their matchup against OU, but was definitely viewed as the underdogs against Oklahoma on the road.

But that was not the case, William & Mary came out the more ready and energized team, and had the lead from the first bucket, up until the Sooners came back to take their first lead, 70-68 with just about two minutes left in the game.

https://twitter.com/OU_MBBall/status/1196607060013543424?s=20

Kristian Doolittle and Austin Reaves scored nearly half of the team’s points on the night, as Doolittle had 19 points, eight rebounds, two assists, and two steals, and Reaves scored 18 points to go along with nine rebounds five assists and a block.

Brady Manek was the third leading scorer with 10 points, and De’Vion Harmon was next in line with eight points as he continued to struggle shooting wise, but was able to string together six rebounds, four assists, and two steals on the night, providing some meaningful numbers in different areas of the box score.

Takeaways from the game

This team CONTINUES to show their youth with this slow start but overcame an 11 point deficit to get the job done yet again.

The good thing we can bring out of this game? This team now is battle-tested late, as they had to fight late to pull this one out. It’s always good to have one of these games under a team’s belt early to see how they’ll react, and I have to say, this Sooners team didn’t blink. Doolittle, Reaves, and Manek came up HUGE late. They shouldn’t have even been in the situation in the first place, but it is still good to know that we reacted well and fought and pulled through nonetheless.

This team rarely turns the ball over:

Oklahoma only had FOUR turnovers in this game, tied with last year’s tourney win against Ole Miss for fewest in a game in the Big-12 era.

The Sooners are currently averaging just 9.0 turnovers per game, which is fewest in the Big-12, and 7th best in college basketball.

The lack of turnovers made up for OU’s horrific shooting night, as they missed their first 10 straight three-point attempts, going just 3-18 on the night to finish at a 16.7% rate. I expect the shooting to be much better than that in the future, but the low turnover rates to continue happening, leading Oklahoma to multiple wins this season, and hopefully in March.

Oklahoma looks to put together a complete game on Thursday, as they host Maryland-Eastern Shore in Norman.