Sooners show defense

By By Kellis Robinett

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Rylan Howe

Drew Lavender, Oklahoma sophomore guard, takes the ball up against junior guard Jeff Hawkins. Kansas held Lavender to eight points on just 1-7 shooting.

NORMAN, Okla. — When Kansas took the floor to start the second half it was losing to the Oklahoma band.

The Sooner’s fight song “Boomer Sooner” was played 13 times in the first half, while Kansas made only nine field goals.

The first half featured 11 assists by Oklahoma and 11 turnovers by Kansas, resulting in a 37-22 lead for Oklahoma at the break.

The Jayhawks made a game out of it in the second half, but the Sooners’ overall team effort was just too much to overcome, costing Kansas its third straight game.

The top scorer for the Sooners was junior guard Terrell Everett, with 19 points, but two other Oklahoma players also finished the game in double figures.

Freshman guard David Godbold added 15 points, and senior forward Johnnie Gilbert chipped in 12 of his own.

Every Oklahoma player who entered the game ended up with points except senior guard Jaison Williams, with seven Sooners scoring at least five points.

“Everybody on our team is a role player,” Oklahoma coach Kelvin Sampson said. “We tried to spread Kansas and beat them off the dribble. We just made plays.”

Oklahoma confused Kansas’ offense, and seemed to find the open man every time by making an extra pass.

Oklahoma’s guards continually drove toward the basket and forced Kansas’ big men to go airborne. This made it easy to dish the ball to another player.

The Sooners finished the game with 14 assists.

“We didn’t do a good job on keeping them out of the lane in the first half,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “We knew before the game when Oklahoma plays their best is when their guards play well, and their guards played very well today.”

The Sooners also played solid team defense against the Jayhawks. The defense forced the Jayhawks to earn every bucket.

Oklahoma junior forwards Kevin Bookout and Taj Gray combined for seven fouls, but their tough defense eliminated Kansas’ ability to attack the basket, and held Kansas to only five offensive rebounds.

Kansas had such a difficult time against Oklahoma’s inside defense that Self played a small line-up in the second half. Senior forward Wayne Simien was the only forward who did anything productive against it; he ended with 17 points but had only six rebounds.

The other three big men who entered the game for Kansas, freshmen forwards Sasha Kaun, C.J. Giles and Darnell Jackson, combined for two points in 19 minutes of action.

“How do you stop Wayne Simien? You just try as hard as you can,” Sampson said. “Bookout is a big guy. 260 pounds, you know, it’s pretty difficult to move him around.”

Kansas players are surely left with more questions than answers after last night’s game. They can take solace in at least one thing though, they finished last night’s contest with 23 field foals, bettering the Oklahoma band by two.

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