OKLAHOMA 50
SMU 47
Despite guard Dez Willingham leading all scorers with a career-high 20 points, the men’s basketball team could not take full advantage of No. 12 Oklahoma’s poor shooting on Jan. 3, falling to the Sooners, 50-47.
Neither SMU (7-5, 0-2 C-USA) nor OU (9-2) were stellar from the field; the Mustangs shot 32.7 percent to the Sooners’ 39 percent. While SMU was a perfect 10-for-10 from the free throw line, however, Oklahoma shooters made just 14 of 22.
Willingham and senior guard Bryan Hopkins each missed potential game tying three-pointers in the waning seconds of regulation, though head coach Jimmy Tubbs was nonetheless pleased with his team’s effort.
“It was definitely a hard-fought basketball game,” Tubbs said. “I don’t know if we could have played any better defensively.”
SMU was able to keep the Sooners’ big men in check. Over the five games leading up to the win in Dallas, senior forwards Taj Gray and Kevin Bookout had averaged 19.7 and 16 points per game, respectively; the Mustang tandem of freshman Brian Morris and junior Donatas Rackauskas held Gray to 15 points and Bookout to nine.
While the Mustangs recorded seven steals and four blocked shots, however, they were out-rebounded 41 to 21.
Though Tubbs said his team was “very competitive down the stretch,” he also gave credit to the Sooners and head coach Kelvin Sampson.
“Oklahoma won the basketball game – we didn’t give it away,” he said. “We can play harder than we did tonight.”
Tubbs compared the game to a double feature at the theatre: “It was like watching a horror movie on offense,” he said, “but on defense it was one of the better ones.”
SMU will visit the East Carolina Pirates (6-9, 0-2 C-USA) tomorrow at 7 p.m.