OU basketball notebook: How it ended
BY GUERIN EMIG World Sports Writer
Sunday, February 03, 2013
Oklahoma
had 5.6 seconds to work with
after Angel Rodriguez’s two free
throws gave Kansas State a 52-
50 lead Saturday.
“We wanted to get it in quickly
to Sam (Grooms) and push it
with maybe a little pick there,”
OU coach Lon Kruger said. “We
didn’t get anything done quickly
out of the backcourt, which used
up some time."
Kansas State denied Grooms
Amath M’Baye’s inbound pass, so
M’Baye threw it to Romero Osby
in the backcourt instead. Osby
held the ball for a second before
Grooms came and took it. By the
time the OU point guard was in
frontcourt, he didn’t have much
time to do anything but put up
a long, semi-desperate 3-point
attempt.
It didn’t draw rim, and the
Sooners fell.
“Kansas State won a lot of
battles on the day,” Kruger said.
“They won that one, too."
How K-State got the lead:
Grooms’ layup with 13 seconds
to play ended OU’s 8-0 run in the
final two minutes, and tied the
score at 50-50. K-State elected
to play the ball inbound rather
than call timeout, because coach
Bruce Weber didn’t want to give
Kruger a chance to draw up a
defense.
The Wildcats inbounded to
Rodriguez, and he dribbled right
at Grooms toward the basket.
“I was expecting a ball screen
going right,” Grooms said, “and
Rodriguez went left and beat me.
Credit him for making the right
read."
Rodriguez was fouled by
M’Baye, and made the two free
throws that followed.
“We had a low double ball
screen,” Weber said. “Angel read
it, got to the bucket, and we were
fortunate to get fouled and make
two free throws."
Up and down: M’Baye and
Steven Pledger were the Sooners’
top scorers with 20 apiece in last
Wednesday’s victory at Baylor.
Saturday, M’Baye went just 3-of-
10 from the floor and finished
with seven points. He did not
score in the second half.
Pledger went just 1-of-4 for
the game and finished with two
points. He played just eight minutes
of the second half.
“He had trouble getting shots,
getting separation from his man,”
Kruger explained. “And then defensively,
he had trouble staying
close to his man a couple times."
Associated Images:
Oklahoma’s Sam Grooms shoots a last-second shot over
Kansas State’s Shane Southwell at the end of Saturday’s game.
Grooms missed the shot, and Kansas State won, 52-50.
NATE BILLINGS/The Oklahoman
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