Sunday, December 04, 2005

Super Nova

Randy Foye had a career-high 32 points and Jason Fraser had 10 points in 26 minutes on Saturday and the fourth-ranked Wildcats beat No. 5 Oklahoma 85-74 in the season's first matchup of teams ranked in the top five.

"I know our guys believed we could beat them and even if we lost this game they would believe it," Villanova coach Jay Wright said. "Everyone talks about our guards, but in our locker room we know what our forwards can do."

Allan Ray added 21 points for the Wildcats, while Kyle Lowry had 10.

Taj Gray had 22 points for Oklahoma and fellow forward Kevin Bookout added 15. They combined for 27 of Oklahoma's 39 points in the second half as the Sooners guards were unable to get off shots let alone make them. Terrell Everett had 11 points and nine assists for the Sooners.

"Collectively, they may be the best group of guards we've played against," Oklahoma coach Kelvin Sampson said. "My hat's off to Fraser for what that kid's been through. Their bigs are functional and they're guards are dynamite."

The Sooners shot 54 percent for the game and won the rebounding battle 29-20 but it was the 17 turnovers leading to 27 Wildcat points that did OU in.

The good news is that this is not college football and one loss doesn’t end your title hopes. This was a game that OU will benefit from. A win would have given them a huge confident boost but even in the loss they have the experience already of playing a number four team on the road. That experience will come up huge when the Sooners travel to Austin Texas, Lawrence KS, and Stillwater.