Oklahoma (4-0) welcomed William & Mary (4-1) as the first leg of the Hall of Fame Classic campus rounds.
The Tribe hung around for much more than the Sooners would have liked, but nonetheless Oklahoma pulled away late thanks to some clutch defensive stops and scoring from Austin Reaves among others to win 75-70.
SLOW STARTS
Oklahoma has yet to play a full solid forty minutes. With a young team built around two main veterans it’s bound to happen but the Sooners haven’t jumped out to a good start so far this season. Head coach Lon Kruger noted the slow start post game, telling reporters, “I didn’t think we opened with the energy that William & Mary opened with.”
Kruger went on to say that the Sooners need to match if not exceed the energy that their opponent starts the game with, especially at home.
SOONERS LACK PHYSICALITY
From the opening tip it seemed as though that the Sooners took William & Mary lightly and it showed.
Oklahoma trailed the Tribe in not just rebounds, but in points for the vast majority of the night. In fact, the Sooners gained their first lead of the night with 13:08 left in the second half, only to relinquish the lead on the ensuing play, allowing a wide open corner three.
Defensively, Oklahoma was bullied on the low block by William & Mary’s Andy Van Vliet and Nathan Knight. The duo combined for 46 points and 21 rebounds.
“He’s (Knight) a really good player. He got it going, he got in a rhythm early and was able to sustain that through out the game,” Krisitan Doolittle told reporters postgame. “We just didn’t key in on him as much as we needed to,”.
Knight finished with 30 points and eight rebounds.
DE’VION HARMON IS MORE THAN A SCORER
Freshman guard, De’Vion Harmon continues to demonstrate why he was a five-star recruit. Harmon finished with eight points, six rebounds, four assists and two steals.
“De’Vion’s good to do that. He’s not going to be necessarily measured by how many points he scores.” Kruger told reporters postgame. “De’Vion had four good days of preparation coming into this where he really worked on distributing the ball and moving the ball and I thought he was great at that tonight.”
Having a guard that can take the back seat and not force shots will be paramount once conference play begins. The Sooners had just four turnovers on the night, a vast improvement on teams of recent history.
Oklahoma is back in action on Thursday as they play host to Maryland Eastern Shore (0-0) in the second leg of the Hall of Fame Classic Campus Rounds.
Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. CT and will be broadcasted on FOX Sports Southwest.
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