Sooners wipe out a season of frustration in routing Rebels
KCOLUMBIA, S.C. ristian Doolittle bullied Ole Miss 7-footer Dominik Olejniczak for two straight easy baskets, and Mississippi coach Kermit Davis had seen enough. Eighty seconds into the game, Davis sensed what was coming and called timeout.
“It was just so easy for them,” Davis said. “I saw kind of a different look on our team, and I just wanted to … kind of settle our team.”
It did no good. OU's 4-0 lead soon became 12-0. The rout was on, the ninth-seeded Sooners eventually winning 95-72 in the first round of the NCAA's South Regional, and Mississippi had to be thinking what we all were thinking. Who is this masked team?
minutes, I knew it was going to be a problem,” Davis said. “We were playing two five men, and Doolittle, you're trying to guard him at wide post areas at 15, 17 feet.”
Doolittle was too quick. Oklahoma's guards were too big.
Even as a 17- point OU halftime lead was cut to 12 on a pair of quick Ole Miss buckets to begin the second half, Odomes again flexed. This time, when he felt 6- foot- 4 guard Terence Davis defending him. Odomes backed the Ole Miss guard all the way down to the bucket.
Another and- one for Odomes — one of his four old-fashioned 3-point plays of the game.
“If we don't score on that possession, and they score again, their crowd gets into it,” Kruger said. “It was big to answer that 5-0 (run) and then take it back out to 17 or 18. Big moment right there.”
When asked about the stabilizing sequence, Odomes was interrupted by teammate Christian James.
“Big guard,” James said slyly.
Odomes finished with 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting despite not playing past the 13:37 mark in the second half.
The potential for multiple mismatches was no secret in OU's locker room.
The Sooners shot 58 percent and held the Rebels to a 5- for- 20 3- point mark in the second half as any comeback attempt was squashed. OU's offense kept humming even as Davis pivoted to a zone defense in the second half.
“It was fantastic,” Kruger said of Crutchfield's plan. “And then the players buy into it and execute in practice. It's one thing to do that, but it goes back to the players making shots. You can have the best game plan in the world and if you don't make shots it looks like our plan's awful.”
Four Sooners scored 18 or more points: Odomes, Doolittle, James and Manek. Together they scored 77 of Oklahoma's 95 points, doing it on 68 percent shooting.
Doolittle added career highs with 15 rebounds and five assists.
OU's 95 points were its most in an NCAA Tournament game since Billy Tubbs' Sooners scored 124 against Louisiana Tech in 1989.