Men's Basketball knocks off No. 2/2 Oklahoma, 73-68
Feb. 21, 2009 AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Texas' A.J. Abrams was firing away and knocking down shots while Oklahoma's Blake Griffin sat on the bench in a daze. The Longhorns' little guy was scoring points in bunches and the Sooners' big man was clouded by a concussion sustained in the first half. Abrams' burst of 16 straight points over the final 8 minutes and the injury to one of the best players in the country were too much for the No. 2 Sooners to overcome in a 73-68 Texas victory that snapped Oklahoma's 13-game winning streak. The loss also likely spoiled the Sooners' chance at grabbing their first No. 1 ranking since 1990. "I feel like with Blake playing it would have been a different game and I feel like with him we would have won," said Oklahoma's freshman guard Willie Warren, who led the Sooners with 27 points. But Griffin played only 11 minutes, all in the first half, and the Big 12's leading scorer and rebounder finished with two points and three rebounds. It appeared Griffin turned on the baseline to take a shot and ran into the open hand of 300-pound Texas forward Dexter Pittman. He left the game with about 4 minutes left in the half and didn't return. "Those are two strong guys. When they hit, that's a big enough collision right there," Texas coach Rick Barnes said. Warren hit six 3-pointers to lead Oklahoma (25-2, 11-1 Big 12). Abrams finished with 23 points and Damion James scored 16 for the Longhorns ( 18-8, 7-5). Abrams started his run of consecutive points with a 3-pointer that put Texas up 56-50. He finished it with another 3 over two defenders to put the Longhorns up 69-65 with 1:17 to play. "I talked to him a bit and asked him if he could stop hitting shots to help us out a bit, but he didn't listen," Warren said. After the Sooners cut the lead to one on Juan Patillo's putback layup, Pittman grabbed an offensive rebound before powering over three Sooners for the basket. Oklahoma's Tony Crocker missed a 3-pointer to tie before Abrams drew a foul and made his two free throws. Warren, the Big 12's top scoring freshman, did his best to carry the Sooners on the court where he won a Texas state high school championship last season. He was 10 of 20 from the floor and his six assists but it was clear the Sooners missed their leader Griffin. "He had a great night," Abrams said of Warren. "My mindset isn't to outshoot him, but just to contain him." Texas came in looking for a win after losing four of its last six and the game quickly picked up the intensity and physical play of the Longhorns' and Sooners' football rivalry. Griffin knocked down the wispy Abrams just 10 seconds into the game to pick up his first foul. "Yeah, it was physical down there, there was a lot of contact," James said. Griffin soon picked up another foul and had already spent about 5 minutes of the half on the bench before he got hurt. He went back to the bench and sat there with a cotton swab stuffed into his left nostril. At halftime, while his teammates ran off the court, Griffin staggered toward the locker room as a trainer held his right arm. He sat on the bench the entire second half. "I don't know what happened," Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel said. It was unclear when Griffin would return. The Sooners play Monday night at home against Kansas. Asked if Griffin wanted to return to the game, Capel said, "He didn't come to me ... this was a decision by the doctors." After Texas built a 41-29 lead early in the second, Oklahoma stormed back with a 14-0 run and led 43-41 on consecutive baskets by Patillo. Two more 3s by Warren put Oklahoma up 61-56 with 5 minutes to play. Even that came with some drama as Warren collapsed to the floor writhing in pain and trainers ran onto the court to work out cramps in his left calf. That's when Abrams wrapped it up with the long shots of his own. His third 3 put Texas up 66-64, a lead the Longhorns wouldn't give away. "You could say this gives us new life," James said. "We really wanted to turn this thing around." POSTGAME NOTES A.J. Abrams Connor Atchley Dogus Balbay Damion James Gary Johnson Dexter Pittman HEAD COACH Rick Barnes On the win: We were pretty resilient and stayed in the game. We spent a better part of three days really preparing to play against Blake [Griffin] and about the first half we did do a good job. When they went away from that and went to the ball screen in the second half, I didn't think we handled it defensively as we needed to. I would have liked to see us put the ball inside and really go at them inside. We needed a win and we got one. On A.J. Abrams: I thought A.J. settled down and really started moving. He did a great job and came up big. On Oklahoma: They would not be coming in here with one loss if they did not have other answers. On the floor, they have guys that can score. They are a legit basketball team. SENIOR GUARD A.J. Abrams On tonight's game: It was a good win for us. We came out there and for the most part we executed our game plan. With Blake [Griffin] going out, it made us change our game plan around. At one point in the second half, we let it get away from us but we picked it up at the right time and continued to get defensive stops when we needed them. On Willie Warren: Obviously he had a great night shooting the ball, we needed to contain him and get the win. Coming down the stretch, I think we just made plays. My teammates did a great job setting screens and getting to the open areas and we finished the game strong. JUNIOR FORWARD Damion James On the game's physicality: It was physical down there. I had a couple easy buckets that I missed. Everybody contested every shot and we came up with a great win as a team. On getting the ball inside: That was our game plan. We didn't want to settle for jump shots because that was what they wanted. Our game plan was the put pressure on the basket and we did that and we were fortunate enough to come up with a win. SOPHOMORE GUARD Dogus Balbay On the game plan: Before the game coach told me that I had to set the tone so I just set out with intensity and tried to play hard on both ends. As a team, we tried to contest every shot and boxed them out. On his performance: I can always do better. I'm just going to keep working hard and try to get better every day. OKLAHOMA QUOTES HEAD COACH JEFF CAPEL Opening statement: First of all, I want to congratulate Texas. They made some big plays down the stretch. [A.J.] Abrams made some huge shots, and they made some tough plays. I'm proud of my team and I'm proud of how we fought and played through some adversity. We gave ourselves a chance to win, but we're really disappointed, because we felt like we let one go. But, they made plays to win the basketball game and we didn't. For the first time in a really long time, our team didn't make those plays down the stretch. On Blake Griffin's injury: No, I do not know of his condition. We'll re-evaluate tomorrow and move on. This was a decision by the doctors to keep him out of the second half. On if there was anything to prove tonight: We didn't have anything to prove to ourselves. We've played hard all year. Again, I've been saying all year, and our guys know it, that it's not Blake and the Sooners, it's Oklahoma. We didn't prove anything to ourselves. We lost and we're disappointed. FRESHMAN GUARD WILLIE WARREN On putting his team on his back: I just knew everybody had to step up a little bit more since Blake [Griffin] was unable to play in the second half. I did whatever I could do to try to help my team win the game. On A.J. Abrams: I asked him if he could stop hitting shots, but he didn't listen at all. It was a totally different ball game without Blake being out there. If he was playing, I think we would've won, more than likely. On his performance tonight: Every time they scored, we had to come back and score. I just tried to make plays to help keep our team in the game, so down the stretch we would have a chance for a tie or a win. SENIOR FORWARD TAYLOR GRIFFIN On the mindset of the team after Blake Griffin sustained an injury: It was time for everybody else to step up and play a little bit harder, especially on defense. I think that's where we lost the game. We let them do what they wanted to do, instead of what we talked about all week. On Dogus Balbay getting to the rim: No. We saw that he's been playing well lately and that's what he has been doing. We could've done a better job on ball screens with him. He's been playing with a lot of confidence lately, and we've seen what he can do. We just weren't very successful in stopping him. On the positives of the game: We're a good team, and Blake [Griffin] is a very good player, but he's not the only player on this team. Unfortunately, it didn't work out tonight. We were down most of the game, but it came down to the end and we gave up an offensive rebound and had a couple of defensive letdowns. On Blake Griffin's injury: I don't know much about it because I was out on the court playing.
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