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Monday, March 10, 2008
Sooners clinch bye in Big 12 Tournament
By JEFF LATZKE
AP Sports Writer
NORMAN, Okla. (AP) -- The band was playing, the fans were cheering and Oklahoma had reason to celebrate. Then the Sooners had to settle down and take care of one last order of business in the regular season.
Austin Johnson scored 18 points and Blake Griffin added 14 points and eight rebounds while making another early return from an injury as Oklahoma clinched a first-round bye in the Big 12 tournament with a 75-66 win Saturday against Missouri.
Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel had been concerned that his team would be affected by a postgame celebration that was waiting when the Sooners returned from a victory in the Bedlam rivalry game, but Oklahoma shook off some early doldrums to put away the Tigers in the second half.
''It was probably as nervous as I've been, just because since we got back Wednesday night everyone's been telling these guys how good they are,'' Capel said. ''Sometimes that has a tendency to make you soft.''
Oklahoma (21-10, 9-7 Big 12) needed the win to seal the No. 4 seed in next week's conference tournament and finish above .500 in conference play, an important mark considering that no team has made the NCAA tournament with eight Big 12 losses.
But it was Missouri (16-15, 6-10) that came out with more hustle, building an eight-point lead before the Sooners responded in the second half.
Longar Longar gave Oklahoma a 55-54 lead on a tip-in off an offensive rebound that got batted around like a volleyball. Johnson followed with a floater in the lane, and Taylor Griffin hit a jumper from the right side to push the lead to five.
Missouri missed four straight free throws while Oklahoma was moving ahead, and the lead reached 66-59 when David Godbold drilled a 3-pointer from the left wing with 4:13 to play.
Demarre Carroll got the Tigers back within 68-64 on a three-point play with 3:07 left, but Johnson answered with a 3-pointer and Missouri didn't score again until Longar was called for goaltending on a Marshall Brown shot with 32.2 seconds left.
The Tigers then allowed Oklahoma to run out the remainder of the clock without fouling.
''You can't forget where you came from. You have to always remember how you got there,'' Longar said.
The Sooners earned the first-round tournament bye with a three-game winning streak to finish the season, edging out Baylor with a tiebreaker decided by Oklahoma's season sweep of the Bears. Before the closing surge, the Sooners' NCAA tournament hopes appeared in jeopardy after back-to-back losses in which they scored only 45 points each game.
''I think it's a pretty resilient group, it's a group that keeps on battling. These guys have been through a lot, and we're really proud of the fact that we get a bye,'' Capel said.
Godbold finished with 16 points and Longar had eight points and nine rebounds in the final home game for both seniors. A game after scoring a career-best 25 against Oklahoma State, Tony Crocker had eight points and fouled out in only 16 minutes.
Leo Lyons and Carroll scored 18 points apiece to lead Missouri, which was outrebounded 20-10 in the second half after controlling the boards early.
''I think we kind of got a little passive in the second half,'' said Carroll, who picked up a crucial fourth foul on an offensive charge and fouled out with 2:33 left. ''That's something we've got to learn. We've got to learn when to be aggressive and when to turn it off.''
Missouri controlled the boards 22-10 and took advantage of nine offensive rebounds in the first half to score 12 second-chance points. The Tigers led 34-26 when Lyons followed back-to-back Matt Lawrence 3-pointers with a nifty reverse layup in transition against two defenders.
Oklahoma rallied within 39-37 by halftime and took its first lead on Godbold's 3-pointer to start the second half. Blake Griffin, playing only six days after surgery on his right knee, then keyed an 11-3 run for the Sooners, scoring six points and putting Oklahoma up 53-50 on a reverse layup off an offensive rebound.
Lyons and Brown followed with consecutive baskets to put Missouri back on top momentarily, but Longar's basket to start a run of six straight points put the Sooners ahead to stay.
Oklahoma now heads into the conference tournament seeking to improve its NCAA tournament seeding instead of needing to win four games in four days to win an automatic bid.
''It's a lot better. We were looking at maybe we're going to have a spring break for the first time in a while. This time, we're already kind of looking at it and determining that this is where we might be,'' Godbold said. ''It makes it even better to know that you have a chance to make it to the NCAAs.''
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