OU celebrates history at McCasland, makes some of its own
OU basketball coach Porter Moser was fired up about the idea. Let’s bring a game to historic McCasland Field House and have a throwback type of evening.
It all sounded great, but it needed execution. The Sooners came through and then some. With more than 3,000 students in attendance, OU took down visiting Arkansas Pine-Bluff 107-86 on Thursday night in what was billed as the “students only” game at McCasland.
The energy was infectious from the start, and the No. 25 Sooners fed off it time and time again. OU raced off to a 25-10 advantage and never looked back. It is the first time OU has scored more than 100 points under Moser.
“I thought it was everything I envisioned,” Moser said. “I remember walking out and just looking up and seeing all of the packed house and seeing the students and the energy. Say it all the time: College basketball is one of the sports that students can impact the most, because they’re right on top of you. So, just been working a couple years to try to get this, to envision the students to having a ton of fun. I thought they had a ton of fun.
“I thought everyone at Oklahoma—the marketing, the facilities, maintenance, everybody did an awesome job getting this thing ready to go. It was just electric in there. It was really loud. I can’t remember a home game where I was having to do hand signals at home. I just really appreciate the students coming out like that, and it was everything I envisioned. And we got to stack it now. That was my message to them. Like, let’s do this over at the LNC now.”
OU used the energy in the right way and kept it going the entire way. Leading 52-34 at halftime, the Sooners cruised the rest of the way.
Otega Oweh had 20 points, two steals and two blocks. He was one of five players to score in double figures (Hugley, Moore, Le’Tre Darthard, Javian McCollum).
Moser had the vision for this night, and it couldn’t have worked out any better.
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John Hugley came up, well, huge. In his first start, he had 15 points and 10 rebounds in just 19 minutes. His size continues to make a difference.
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“He’s a wide body, hard to get around,” Moser said. “He got a couple of fouls early. He’s a different threat. If you post him up, he carves up space out there. Continue to get him with the pace. He was rebounding. I was really pleased, double-double in 19 minutes? Hard to be critical.”
Sam Godwin missed the game because of illness. Moser said Godwin should be ready to go for Tuesday night’s game.
*Another banner outing for Jalon Moore. His athleticism on full display once again with 19 points and five rebounds and two blocks.
*Milos Uzan continues to distribute the ball at an effective rate. Averaging more than four assists per game, that will go up after having eight Thursday. OU had 26 assists on 40 made field goals.
*Up next? A big week begins Tuesday when Providence comes to Lloyd Noble Center to take on the Sooners at 6 p.m. in the Big East/Big 12 Battle.
