Texas and Big 12 Basketball Capsules: Olajuwon scores 23 as No. 20 Sooners top TCU 74-70
NORMAN, Okla. — With No. 20 Oklahoma struggling from the perimeter and still adjusting to the departure of All-American Courtney Paris to the WNBA, the Sooners are finding a new inside presence to rely on.
Abi Olajuwon scored a career-high 23 points and Danielle Robinson added 16 as the Sooners bounced back from their first loss of the season to beat TCU 74-70 on Saturday.
Olajuwon, the daughter of former NBA star Hakeem Olajuwon, steadied Oklahoma (2-1) inside during a second straight poor performance from 3-point range. She made 11 of her 15 shots, while the Sooners connected on just 27 percent of their 3-point attempts.
"She carried us offensively," coach Sherri Coale said. "She did a very nice job of taking rhythmic shots. She didn't rush, forced them to eventually start bringing a double team.
"I just thought she was real patient and tough around the basket, and did exactly what we asked her to do."
Oklahoma, which made only five of its 21 attempts from 3-point range in a 62-51 loss to Georgia on Sunday, went 6 for 22 against TCU. After ranking third in the Big 12 with 177 3-pointers last season on their way to the Final Four, the Sooners are making only 29 percent through three games this season.
"I don't know what we did get on the perimeter surrounding (Olajuwon), honestly. A lot of guys standing and staring like they'd never played basketball," Coale said. "It was a horrendous display of offensive basketball, about as poorly as you can play the game."
The Sooners missed their first seven 3-pointers before Olajuwon started carrying the load. She scored 12 of her team's final 19 points in the first half to keep Oklahoma within 34-32 at halftime. Olajuwon matched her previous career high with 16 points in the first half.
"When shots aren't falling, we can't just stop playing," said Whitney Hand, who had 13 points for Oklahoma. "The thing we did wrong is we just stopped and stared at Abi. If Abi hadn't scored, we would have lost by 20. We didn't do a lot right, honestly."
Starr Crawford led the Horned Frogs (2-1) with 19 points and 13 rebounds, guiding a late charge that cut a seven-point deficit to two in the final minute. Robinson hit two free throws with 7.2 seconds left to seal the victory.
Helena Sverrisdottir had 14 points and 10 rebounds, but also had 10 of TCU's 24 turnovers, while TK LaFleur scored 13.
"I was furious with my basketball team in terms of their execution, and that's my responsibility," TCU coach Jeff Mittie said. "I thought we were further along executing, but we're obviously not. We had numerous breakdowns and numerous players in bad areas of the floor for them, which caused a lot of turnovers."
The Sooners opened the second half on a 10-0 run as Robinson scored six points, including a pair of free throws that made it 44-36. TCU rallied back to tie it at 47 when Eboni Mangum's jumper in the lane spun in, but never led again.
Freshman Joanna McFarland answered at the other end to give Oklahoma the lead for good with 12:57 remaining, and Whitney Hand and Carlee Roethlisberger, the sister of Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, hit back-to-back 3-pointers during a run of eight straight points that stretched the advantage to 59-50.
"That's just frustrating. You go in at halftime and you talk about things and then the first two trips down the floor, we don't execute anything we talked about," Mittie said. "That's where I have to say how far along are we and how good of a basketball team are we really because good teams execute those plays."
Webb leads No. 7 LSU past Houston, 72-54
BATON ROUGE, La. — LSU coach Van Chancellor made it clear he wants better performances from his No. 7 LSU team, despite a 72-54 victory against Houston.
"We cannot accept this effort," Chancellor said Saturday after the Cougars gave the undefeated Lady Tigers their toughest game of the season. "We cannot accept what we did defensively."
Freshman guard Adrienne Webb came off the bench to score 17 points for LSU (3-0). She hit three of four 3-point shots. Senior guard Allison Hightower scored 16 points, 10 in the second half.
"We're going to live with what we did on offense," Chancellor said. "We're not going to accept what we did on defense."
Courtney Taylor led Houston (3-1) with 18 points and nine rebounds. Coach Joe Curl was more complimentary of LSU than Chancellor.
"This team, I hope, has a Final Four written on them," Curl said, "because they're very talented, they're very long. Their length really hurt us."
So did LSU's depth.
"I was wishing that we could play against the bottom five," Curl said, "but I thought they looked better than their first five."
LSU guard Katherine Graham added a double-double (10 points, 11 rebounds) and forward Taylor Turnbow came close (12 points, nine rebounds).
Webb scored 10 more points than her output in the first two games.
"I felt like we have to find someone to try and step in and fill in for whoever is not scoring, because we weren't scoring at will like we were (in the first two games)," she said.
Turnbow helped LSU build a 31-22 halftime lead with 10 points and eight rebounds. She scored on three consecutive possessions during a span of nearly five minutes when Houston was held scoreless.
Houston, playing on the road for the third time in its four games, didn't play the role of overmatched sparring partner. The Cougars led 12-8 nearly midway through the first half, forcing missed shots with aggressive defense around the basket.
LSU became more assertive after a timeout with 10:31 left before halftime, taking a 20-12 lead in less than three minutes.
State Men
Nebraska finds some offense to beat TCU 90-77
LINCOLN, Neb. — Nebraska scored 90 points for the first time in more than three years under coach Doc Sadler in downing TCU 90-77 on Saturday.
But the defensive-minded Sadler wasn't thrilled by the offense, and he certainly wasn't happy with his team's inability to stop the Horned Frogs.
"I know people will be talking about how many points we scored," Sadler said. "The frustrating and scary thing is to know how hard we worked on defense, and that is all we got. We've got a lot of work to do."
But Nebraska's defense clamped down at the end of the game, holding TCU to eight points in the final four minutes.
Nebraska (2-1) led 70-69 when Ryan Anderson hit a wide-open 3-pointer from the top of the circle with 4:04 remaining. Forty seconds later, Anderson's two free throws put Nebraska up 75-69.
TCU (2-2) got a basket from Ronnie Moss with 2:38 left. But Anderson immediately countered with a short jumper that made it 77-71.
Nebraska made 11 of its 12 free throws in the final 2:13 to seal the win. TCU was 4 of 6 from the line in the last two minutes after Nebraska had stretched the lead to double figures.
Nebraska guard Sek Henry, who finished with 11 points and 11 assists, attributed the game-ending surge to "our conditioning and just grinding, trying to get the ball into the post."
Pushing the ball inside led to just one field goal in the final two minutes, a layup by Jorge Brian Diaz with 16 seconds left that gave the freshman center a career-high 22 points.
"I've got to credit my teammates," Diaz said. "My points were pretty much layups."
Diaz played Saturday wearing a mouth guard after having two teeth loosened and his mouth cut during Nebraska's 69-55 loss Wednesday at St. Louis.
"Brian missed practice Thursday with his teeth," Sadler said. "It was great to have him back. He played really well.
Tied 44-44 at the half, neither team was able to take control through most of the second half. TCU's biggest second-half lead was five, and Nebraska led by no more than three until the late surge.
Moss led TCU with 23 points. Neither TCU coach Jim Christian nor his players spoke to the media after the game.
Oklahoma State defeats North Texas 82-68
STILLWATER, Okla. — Oklahoma State players got tired of hearing about North Texas guard Josh White in the days leading up to Saturday's game.
White, a junior, was coming off a 35-point performance for the Mean Green in a double-overtime victory over Texas-Arlington last Wednesday. A year ago, White scored 23 points against the Cowboys.
This time around White didn't have much success as Oklahoma State held the talented guard to just four points on 1-of-6 shooting in an 82-68 victory at Gallagher-Iba Arena.
White did not score his first points until 3 minutes 30 seconds remained.
"I know Ray Penn and Fred Gulley are sick and tired of hearing about Josh White," said Oklahoma State head coach Travis Ford, whose squad improved to 3-0. "Probably a million times over the last two days, that's all we've talked about. We kept telling them how great he was. We wanted them to be in a position of having to prove themselves. I kept talking about them being freshmen and that (White) was an extremely good player.
"The freshmen won this go-around, no question. Josh White is a great point guard, one of the 10 best in the country, but our young guys did a tremendous job on him in this game."
Penn played 35 minutes with Gulley on the floor for 19. The two first-year guards combined to score four points, but had six assists and just one turnover.
White had five assists and four turnovers in 35 minutes on the floor.
"(Oklahoma State) did an excellent job of trying to force us out of our offense," said North Texas coach Johnny Jones. "They wouldn't allow us to get into any kind of rhythm. They did a great job in trying to take our leading scorer away with their trapping.
"Those young guards are going to be good. They have experience around them and that is going to help with their progress."
"This is why you play Division I basketball," said Penn, a Houston native. "I studied the scouting report and I know what I am capable of. (White) is a good player and we had a great team effort. You love to face players who are as good as you because it allows you to find out where your game is.
"This game makes me feel like I can compete at this level."
The experience around Penn includes junior James Anderson, who scored 25 points and pulled down nine rebounds. Marshall Moses scored 10 points and grabbed nine rebounds with Obi Muonelo adding 17 points and Keiton Page scoring 13.
The Cowboys led 44-32 at halftime as North Texas (2-1) struggled from the floor hitting just 12-of-33 shot attempts through 20 minutes.
Eric Tramiel, who led North Texas with 16 points, opened the second half with back-to-back baskets, plus a free throw, and North Texas cut the Cowboys' lead to 45-37.
George Odufuwa's field goal and free throw cut the lead to 50-44, and Collin Mangrum's 3-pointer from the corner cut the deficit to four with 14 minutes to play. Mangrum's 10-foot jumper cut the lead to 51-49 just over a minute later.
However, back-to-back buckets by Moses and the Cowboys' lead was quickly back to six. Muonelo and Anderson each hit a pair of free throws and Oklahoma State was ahead 59-49 at the 8:30 mark.
North Texas outrebounded their hosts, 35-33, getting eight rebounds from Jacob Holmen off the bench. Odufuwa added seven boards for the Mean Green.
Shaw leads way as Nevada defeats Houston 112-99
RENO, Nev. — Joey Shaw scored 26 points to lead Nevada to a 112-99 victory over Houston on Saturday night.
Brandon Fields added 24 points and Armon Johnson 22 points and 12 assists for the Wolf Pack (2-1), who led by as many as 26 points in the second half before holding off the Cougars in the final minutes.
Aubrey Coleman scored 34 points and Adam Brown 25 for the Cougars (1-1), who trailed 84-58 with 13:52 left to play. Houston rallied with a 36-16 run to pull to within 100-94 on a three-point play by Desmond Wade with 5 minutes to play. Coleman had 16 points during the run and Brown 13.
But Shaw hit a pair of free throws, put back a missed jumper by London Giles and drained a 19-foot jumper to spark an 8-0 Nevada run that put the game away.
"I was just trying to give energy to the team," said Shaw, who also grabbed 9 rebounds.
Luke Babbitt had 14 points and 17 rebounds for Nevada, which outrebounded Houston 57-27.
"Our first two games, we were outrebounded, so coach was really stressing that," Shaw said. "Most of the time, whoever grabs the most rebounds is going to win."
Nevada coach David Carter called the win "huge" as the Wolf Pack heads into an East Coast road trip with games against Virginia Commonwealth and North Carolina.
"Every game gets bigger after this," Carter said. "This game was huge, especially after losing to UNLV (88-75 Wednesday)."
Nevada led 61-44 at halftime, sparked by the hot hand of Fields who had 22 points in the first half on 9 of 11 shooting. He scored the first basket of the second half, but went down with leg cramps with about 15 minutes left in the game and did not return.
With the Wolf Pack holding a 14-11 lead with 15:24 left in the first half, Fields sparked a 22-8 run that stretched the lead to 36-19 with 11:08 to play.
The Cougars whittled the lead to 45-35 with 5:33 left in the half, but Fields drove baseline for a dunk and followed with a pair of 3-pointers to put Nevada ahead 53-35 with 3:24 before halftime.
The Wolf Pack's largest lead of the half was 61-39 on a 3-pointer by Ray Kramer, who finished with 19 points.
Nevada hit 42 of its 69 shots from the field (60.9 percent), while Houston was 37 of 84 (44.0 percent).
The Cougars forced the Wolf Pack into 23 turnovers, while committing only five of their own.
Texas Tech tops Lamar 77-54
LUBBOCK — Nick Okorie scored 19 points and D'walyn Roberts had 15 as Texas Tech took a commanding 77-54 win against Lamar on Saturday night.
Roberts also led his team with nine rebounds, and John Roberson had 11 points.
Okorie also sunk a half-court shot at the end of the first half to put the Red Raiders (5-0) up by 10.
The Cardinals (2-2) shot just 38 percent from the floor, while the Red Raiders hit almost 46 percent.
Lamar's Justin Nabors led the game in rebounds with 10. Charlie Harper led his team on points with 12. But Lamar couldn't overcome making 21 turnovers, which led to 29 points for Texas Tech.
The Red Raiders scored 35 points by players coming off the bench.
Southern Methodist tops Florida Gulf Coast 79-62
DALLAS — Paul McCoy and Mouhammad Faye scored 18 points apiece Saturday night as Southern Methodist defeated Florida Gulf Coast 79-62.
The score was 31-31 at the half, but McCoy's 3-pointer on the Mustangs' first possession of the second half put them ahead for good. Justin Haynes contributed 17 points off the bench for SMU (1-2), which led by as much as 19 points and shot 60 percent in the second half as Faye and McCoy each scored 13 points after halftime. McCoy and Papa Dia had eight rebounds each for the Mustangs.
Reggie Chambers and Derrick O'Neil scored 12 points each to lead Florida Gulf Coast (0-3).
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi tops St. Edward's 75-66
CORPUS CHRISTI — Justin Reynolds had 16 points and 10 rebounds and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi held off St. Edward's 75-66 Saturday night.
Three other players finished in double figures for the Islanders (3-2). Terence Jones scored 16, Kevin Palmer 15 and Horace Bond 10. Jeff Miner had 23 points for the Hilltopers (0-3), who rallied to briefly take the lead in the second half after trailing 37-22 at intermission.
St. Edward's used a 16-2 run to pull within one point with 10:31 remaining, then took a 56-55 lead with 7:37 to go. Corpus Christi, though, regained the lead on two free throws by Reynolds and never trailed again.
The Islanders committed 19 turnovers, but overcame their miscues by shooting 52.6 percent and outrebounding the Hilltopers 36-29.
Eastern Washgton wins 72-68 over Texas-Arlington
ARLINGTON — Jeffrey Forbes 24 points helped lead the Eastern Washington Eagles to a 72-68 victory over the University of Texas-Arlington Mavericks on Saturday night.
Forbes was 10-of-16 from the field and grabbed four rebounds. Alden Gibbs and Mark Dunn each added 11 points in the winning effort for the Eagles (2-2). Gibbs also had a game high three steals.
Marquez Haynes scored 32 points for the Mavericks (1-2). He was 12-for-17 from the field including a 5-for-6 performance from the three-point line. He also committed nine turnovers. LaMarcus Reed added 13 points for the Mavericks.
Eastern Washington recorded 14 assists in the game while the Mavericks were only able to get six.
Texas Southern tops Dickinson State 77-65
AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. — Deandre Hall scored a season-high 21 points and Travele Jones and Aaron Clayborn each added 13 to lead Texas Southern to a 77-65 win over Dickinson State in the consolation game of the Reggie Minton Air Force Classic on Saturday night.
The Tigers (2-3) overpowered the Blue Hawks (1-7) in the first half, scoring 26 points in the paint and shooting 66.7 percent from the field.
Seven dunks led to Texas Southern's gaudy statistics, and they also out-rebounded Dickinson State 18-6 in the first 20 minutes en route to a 48-32 halftime advantage.
The Tigers led by as many as 23 in the second half, but the Blue Hawks fought back with a 13-2 run to close the gap.
Nate Lebsock led Dickinson State with 16 points, Josh Henry had 14, Nate Williams had 12 and Curtis Ashe contributed 10 in the loss.
Stephen F. Austin tops Jackson State 62-61
NACOGDOCHES — Jordan Glynn scored off a rebound with 1.1 seconds remaining Saturday to give Stephen F. Austin a 62-61 victory over Jackson State.
After the Lumberjacks called time-out with 32 seconds remaining to set up the last shot, Glynn missed from inside with :04 left. Eddie Williams' tip-in also missed the mark before Glynn grabbed the rebound and put in the game-winner.
Stephen F. Austin (1-1) scored the final six points of the game while holding Jackson State (0-3) scoreless for 1:46. Glynn scored the final five points for SFA, his only points of the game.
Williams had 19 points and nine rebounds for Stephen F. Austin, which trailed by 10 at one point in the second half. Walt Harris and Jereal Scott added 13 points each.
Tyrone Hanson led Jackson State with 20 points, and Garrison Johnson added 18.
New Orleans beats Texas State 67-55
NEW ORLEANS — Billy Humphrey scored with 23 points to lead New Orleans to a 67-55 win over Texas State on Saturday.
Humphrey shot 6-for-13 from the field and 9-for-10 from the free throw line for the Privateers (2-1). Carl Blair contributed with 10 rebounds and eight assists.
New Orleans used a 13-1 run in the first half to turn a four-point deficit into an 8-point lead, as a 3-pointer from Devin McDonald capped the run and made the score 21-13 with 7:59 remaining. The Privateers led 31-25 at halftime.
The Bobcats (1-3) were led by Tony Bishop, who finished with 16 points and six rebounds. Cameron Johnson added 12 points and seven rebounds in the losing effort.
New Orleans shot 42.1 percent from the field (24-for-57), including 53.3 percent from 3-point range (8-for-15).
Texas State shot only 29 percent in the game (18-for-62).
Cleveland State beats Sam Houston State 80-65
CLEVELAND — Norris Cole scored 24 points and had six assists to lead Cleveland State to an 80-65 victory on Saturday night.
Cole was 6-for-10 from the field as the Vikings (3-1), who never trailed, shot 25-for-47 from the field (53.2 percent). Cole also was 10 of 12 from the free throw line.
Sam Houston State (2-2) cut the score to 68-61 on Josten Crow's free throws with 3:33 remaining in the game, but Trevon Harmon hit a layup and Tim Kamczyc hit a jumper to extend the advantage to 72-61 with 2:14 left.
Cole hit four consecutive free throws to pad the lead to 80-63 with 52 seconds remaining.
Harmon added 16 points and Jared Cunningham scored 10 for Cleveland State, which was 9-for-13 from 3-point range (69.2 percent).
Preston Brown and Lance Pevehouse scored 13 points each for Sam Houston State. Corey Allmond added 11 points.
Top 25 Big 12 Men
Gavin and Sanders help VCU upset No. 17 Oklahoma
RICHMOND, Va. — When Jeff Capel left Virginia Commonwealth to become the head coach at Oklahoma four years ago, his contract mandated that he bring his new team back to Richmond to play the Rams.
Capel received a very warm welcome Saturday night, and then the Rams showed him that things are just fine without him.
Jay Gavin scored 20 points, Larry Sanders 17 and Virginia Commonwealth never trailed in an 82-69 upset of No. 17 Oklahoma on Saturday night.
Gavin, a sophomore guard, wasn't fazed by 18 professional scouts in the stands.
"I wasn't really worried about it," said Gavin. "Our intensity level was through the roof tonight. We concentrated on defense for 40 minutes."
Leading by one early on, the Rams (2-1) used a 20-8 spurt to take control of the game. VCU hit six straight 3-pointers during the run, including two by Gavin.
"Congrats to VCU," said Capel, who was 79-41 as the Rams' coach. "They shot the heck out of the ball. We let our lack of making shots determine how the game went.
"I knew our team wasn't as good as everyone had us. This was a great game for us. I didn't like the result but we'll grow from this game."
Oklahoma cut its deficit to 31-22 with 8:08 left before going without a field goal for just over 6 minutes. VCU extended its advantage to 40-23 with 4:35 left on two free throws by T.J. Gwynn.
The Sooners (1-2) cut the lead to 10 at the half, but could get no closer in the second half. Oklahoma went through a drought in the second half hitting just two field goals over a 10:42 span before Tony Crocker's 3-pointer made it 75-65 with 1:54 left.
The Rams missed only one free throw over the final 23 seconds to end any hopes of a Sooners rally.
Crocker led the Sooners with 19 points and Tiny Gallon added 15.
It marked the first ranked team to play in the Siegel Center, which opened in 1999.
