Willie Warren scored 24 points and dished out four assists, as 17th-ranked Oklahoma overcame a slow start to post a 72-61 win over UL-Monroe at the Lloyd Noble Center.
Oklahoma Overcomes Slow Start, Beats UL-Monroe 72-61
Tony Crocker chipped in 13 points, while Tommy Mason-Griffin and Cade Davis both finished with nine points for the Sooners (2-0), who notched the 1,500th victory in school history and the 150th for head coach Jeff Capel.
“A win is a win. It wasn’t pretty. You have to give a lot of credit to Louisiana-Monroe,” Capel said. “They were very prepared for this game. It felt like early they tried to take the air out of the ball a little bit, which was a little bit surprising. We didn’t come out with the energy that we needed to come out with — for whatever reason, I don’t know. It took us getting down and punched in the mouth for us to start punching back.”
Tony Hooper had 17 points and five rebounds to pace the Warhawks (1-2), who got 12 points and five boards from Rudy Turner.
“Coming in here on the road against the 17th-ranked team in the country is definitely a tall task,” said Warhawks head coach Orlando Early. “They’re bigger, stronger, deeper and more physical, and we were able to compete with them for most of the game.”
Oklahoma scored the first five points of the game, but UL-Monroe countered with an 11-0 run that Hooper capped with a three-pointer.
The Warhawks led 16-8 after Dynile Forbes knocked down a trey, but Oklahoma gradually closed the gap and went ahead 23-22 on a layup by Warren with 1:39 remaining in the first half. Oklahoma carried a 27-24 lead into the break.
Jarvis Hill hit a layup to give UL-Monroe its final lead of the game, 39-38, near the six-minute mark. The Sooners responded with a 9-0 run, and Crocker nailed a three-pointer to make it 53-42 with about 9 1/2 minutes remaining.
Oklahoma led by at least nine points the rest of the way.
The Sooners have won all four meetings with UL-Monroe…Forbes finished with 11 points…Oklahoma shot 47.7 percent from the floor, while the Warhawks made 45.5 percent of their shots.
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