Trailing by one heading into the break, the Oklahoma Sooners assessed the situation taking place inside Lloyd Noble Center. Making the appropriate adjustments, the program claimed a 91-64 victory over Maryland Eastern Shore. Moving to 5-0 on the year, Lon Kruger continues to place trust in the perimeter defense to get the job done.
Setting the tone early, Kristian Doolittle collected 18 points on a perfect outing (7-of-7). Catching the notion in the final twenty minutes of play, the rest of the team joined in with several high percentage shots at or near the rim. Over the course of the second half, OU punished the opposing defense while connecting on an astonishing 66.7% of the attempts from the floor.
However, the play off the bench deserves much of the credit on the evening. Stuffing the stat sheet, Victor Iwuakor netted a career high 13 points to go alongside four rebounds and a takeaway in just 14 minutes of action. Backed up by the performances of Jalen Hill and Alondes Williams, the bench accounted for 33 points in total.
Knowing five players eclipsed the double digit mark in scoring, there’s a little time to celebrate the win. But, Kruger immediately began to focus on the next contest with Stanford and the remaining schedule stating, “We’d like to play 40 minutes. We haven’t done that yet. We always talk about the next possession is the only one that counts. It’s the most important one. We still have to grab ahold of that mentality a little bit more.”
The Sooners are heavily favored against the Stanford Cardinal heading in to Monday’s battle of unbeatens. Catch all the action on ESPN2 at 8:30PM CT.