Happy Thanksgiving, Sooner Nation! We are thankful for family – both on the court and supporting us in the stands. #AsONE pic.twitter.com/0OAraokVVZ
— Oklahoma Basketball (@OU_MBBall) November 24, 2016
Following a third place finish in the Tire Pros Invitational, the Oklahoma Sooners return home for a short stretch before heading out on the road. Blowing two 18-point leads inc consecutive games, Lon Kruger hopes the trip to Orlando provided quality experience for some youngsters.
“It’s hard to get this type of experience from practice so to do what we did to build the lead and kind of hang on late is great experience for our guys. I liked our guys’ response from the disappointment on [November 18th], having the big lead on Northern Iowa then losing in overtime.” Coach Kruger said after the win over Clemson. “They practiced well, they watched the video, they wanted to get back and play and they opened with good energy and we took the fight to them early. It was a good response for sure.”
Now, the team begins to prepare for a showdown with the Abilene Christian Wildcats in Norman. The meetings marks the third such occassion between the two programs with the most recent matchup occuring in 1982.
The Wildcats return three starters and have had similar issues to their upcoming Friday counterpart. In front of a home crowd, ACU squandered a 17-point lead to Charleston Southern before eventually falling on a jumper in the final seconds of regulation.
Head coach, Joe Golding took a majority of the blame stating, “We’ve got a young team and we didn’t play very well or coach very well down the stretch.” He’ll lean on Jaren Lewis (14.3 ppg) to lead the charge in Norman.
Which program can build a sustainable lead and refuse to let go of it? We’ll find out on Friday at 2:00pm CST!