OU basketball opens in style, blows out Lindenwood

OU fans are getting accustomed to this now. Another year under Porter Moser, another first game of trying to figure out who these guys are.

And for a first impression? Some improvement necessary, of course, but a strong debut for OU in a 93-60 victory against visiting Lindenwood on Monday night at the Lloyd Noble Center.

OU was actually tied with Lindenwood at 9-9 before the Sooners took off. Caught their breath, let the nerves go away and went to work. What followed was a 28-5 run to take control and never look back.

And what sequence highlighted it was a block by Mo Wague, leading to a fast break opportunity from freshman guard Jeremiah Fears and finding transfer Brycen Goodine for the third of his three 3-pointers in the first half.

The new faces feeling at home. And how much retention means.

“There was just some nervous energy, maybe a little too wound up,” Moser said. I” thought when they settled down. Jalon Moore – the joy of having retention – Jalon and Sam. You could see it in the shootaround. They walked around, totally sure of what they were doing. I thought they got us out of the gates.”

OU Game 1 Takeaways

*That’s what you want to see and will expect to see from Jalon Moore. Just complete ownership of this year’s team.

Getting out in transition and finishing. Cleaning up the glass. Knocking down threes. The confidence is at an all-time high. Just watch him work.

Moore finished with 22 points and seven rebounds. It’s just his third 20-point game in his career, but you can see this will be a different Moore in 2024-25.

*And how a nice debut from Jeremiah Fears? His very first possession resulted in an alley-oop dunk for Moore. He actually already had two assists before he ever took a shot.

Fears had 16 points and six assists and five rebounds.

“The unknown of playing at this level. But man, he sure is electrifying,” Moser said. “He really can go downhill. The thing about it is, he just kind of all of a sudden you look up and he’s got five rebounds to go along with six assists and 16 points. That’s a lot of good plays in there.

“And he’s gonna continue to grow situationally (with) what we need and everything. But he can go downhill, and I thought that was a problem early. They were really physical and switching some things. I thought when he got in there, we started going downhill more. The thing is when you crash as many guys as they did, they were really just crashing the glass, you can get out and run. He gets the transition going so fast. I bet you a lot of his assists in there were transition, and that was great to see.”

*Just put your head down and do the dirty work. That’s what Sam Godwin does. No plays are run for him, no big deal.

Godwin took care of the boards all night on his way to grabbing 15 rebounds with 11 points.

*OU began 1-for-7 shooting from 3-point territory before finding a groove. Brycen Goodine and Duke Miles combined to connect on seven attempts. Goodine made three in the first half. Miles one-upped that with four 3-pointers in the second half.

Moser has a firm belief this team will be a much better shooting squad than what has been in Norman. Making double-digit threes (14-33) is a good way to show that.

Miles had 14 points and pitched in with six assists. Goodine left after an injury and didn’t play in the second half.

*OU was without transfer guard Jadon Jones. He came in questionable with a back injury and was not suited to play. Again, he’s another one of those guys Moser will count on for improved shooting this season.

“We’ll get Jadon back—hopefully, in a couple weeks; I don’t know how long he is,” Moser said. “It’s a back thing. I don’t know how long, so I’ll find out.”

Up next

A week off for the Sooners. OU (1-0) will not hit the court again until Northwestern State comes to Norman 7 p.m. next Monday.