In a battle of top 10 unbeatens looking to put some cachet behind their lofty national rankings, No. 7 Oklahoma routed No. 9 Villanova 78-55 in the first game of the 2015 Pearl Harbor Invitational in Hawaii.
Oklahoma vs. Villanova final score: Sooners roll to 78-55 victory
A pair of unbeaten teams ranked in the top 10 each made an extreme statement at the Pearl Harbor Invitational Monday night. One positive, the other not so positive.
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The Sooners, who entered the game owning their highest national ranking since the 2008-09 season, dominated from start to finish. They raced out to a 15-3 lead thanks in large part to nine quick points from star guard Buddy Hield, then withstood a late half flurry from Villanova that briefly tied the score at 26. The Wildcats would never lead, however, as OU flexed its muscles right out of the locker room and ran away with its sixth victory of the young season.
Senior guard Isaiah Cousins was the star of stars on this night for Oklahoma, scoring a game-high 19 points to go along with his game-high 10 assists. Despite a relatively subpar shooting performance, Hield chipped in with 18 points of his own. Double-double machine Ryan Spangler also did his thing, scoring 11 points to go along with 10 rebounds. The senior was the most productive member of a Sooner team that outrebounded their opponents 43-33.
Three-point shooting continues to be a primary concern for ninth-ranked Villanova, which entered Monday night with a 7-0 record despite shooting just 30.9 percent from beyond the arc as a team. That number wouldn’t be such an issue if the Wildcats weren’t averaging 31.4 shots per game from long range. The latter number will rise after ‘Nova attempted 32 3-pointers in the loss to Oklahoma. Unfortunately, the former number will not, as the Wildcats connected on just four of those shots, good for a dismal 12.5 percent.
None of the nine Wildcats who saw the floor made more than half of their shots, and only one -- forward Daniel Ochefu -- shot 50 percent. Especially humbled in defeat was star freshman guard Jalen Brunson, who misfired on 10 of his 13 field goal attempts, and finished the night with just one assist. As a team, 'Nova assisted on just eight of its 20 made shots.
The lopsided loss will only add more fuel to the fight of those who refuse to take Villanova seriously after being upset in the round of 32 in each of the last two NCAA Tournaments, despite being a No. 1 seed in 2015 and a No. 2 seed the year before. The Wildcats will have a second chance to silence those critics in 10 days when they travel to Charlottesville to take on No. 10 Virginia.
Monday night’s game was the first half of the 2015 Pearl Harbor Invitational doubleheader, played at Bloch Arena on the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam near Honolulu. Veterans of the Pearl Harbor attack were recognized and honored throughout the game, played on the 74th anniversary of the event which resulted in the United States entering World War II.
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