Game Notes: No. 4 Oklahoma 54, No. 12 Colorado 49

 

OKLAHOMA
Oklahoma improves 10-0 vs Colorado in postseason play (7-0 in Big 8 Championships, 3-0 in Big 12 Championships)

 

The win was the 22nd of the year for the Sooners and head coach Jeff Capel, one off of Capel's career high for wins in a season. In 2003-04, he went 23-8 at Virginia Commonwealth en route to making his lone appearance in the NCAA Tournament, as a head coach.

 

Blake Griffin scored four points, but grabbed nine rebounds. The point total represents the fewest he had registered in an Oklahoma win. His previous low point total in a win was nine at Texas Tech on 2/16/08. The Sooners improve to 2-4 when Blake Griffin fails to reach double figures.

 

Oklahoma limited Colorado to 21 points in the first half, 28 in the second half. They have held opponents to 30 points or less in seven of their last eight halves.

 

During their four-game win streak, the Sooners have limited opponents to 52.0 points per game, 35.7 percent from the floor and 22.1 percent from the 3-point arc. Today they held Colorado to 49 points, 18-of-52 shooting (34.6 percent) and 6-of-25 shooting on 3-point attempts (24.0 percent).

 

The Sooners played their first-ever Big 12 Championship game against a 12th-seeded opponent. They have now faced 11 of the 12 seeds in Big 12 Championship play. Oklahoma has never faced the No. 9 seed.

 

COLORADO
With a jump shot at the 2:04 mark in the first half, Richard Roby collected his 1,991st point passing Texas A&M's Bernard King for fourth on the Big 12's career scoring list. King scored 1,990 for the Aggies from 2001-05.; Roby scored on a lay-up with 15:58 remaining in the game for his 1,996th point to pass Donnie Boyce's total of 1,995 points to establish the school's career scoring record. Boyce set the record on 3/10/95 against Oklahoma. Roby scored his 2,000th point on a short jump shot with 3:45 left. He became the first Colorado player, the fourth Big 12 player and the 12th active player in the country to reach 2,000.

 

Roby, Marcus Hall and Cory Higgins all appeared as part of the Buffaloes' starting five. They became the first trio to start every game in a season since 1984-85. Higgins is the first Colorado freshman to start every game in a season since Roby in 2004-05 (30 starts).

 

Hall and Roby combined to connect on 13-of-28 shots in the game while the rest of the team shot 5-of-24 (20.8 percent) en route to scoring under 50 points in a game for the sixth time this season.

 

Colorado falls to 0-9 in Big 12 quarterfinal games. They are the only Big 12 team not to win a quarterfinal game.

 

Big 12 Championship Notes...
No double-digit seed has won more than one game in a Championship since Texas won two games as the 10th seed to advance to the semifinals of the 1998 Championship. Since Texas, five double-digit seeds have won a first-round game. All lost in the quarterfinals.

 

The 103 combined points represents the second-lowest scoring quarterfinal game in Big 12 Championship history. The lowest came on 3/7/97 when these same two teams combined for 96 points (Oklahoma won 55-41)

 

With this five-point margin, the first six games of the 2008 Big 12 Championship have been decided by a total of 41 points. No Big 12 Championship has seen its first six games decided by a closer aggregate margin. The previous mark through six games was 47 points, set in 2001.