The Sooners opened season play with a home win against the Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers 95 to 71 and displaying just why this year’s freshman class is called one of the best in the nation.

Freshman guard Steven Pledger led all scorers with 21, 12 of which came from behind the arc as Pledger lit up from behind the arc hitting four of five. Keith “Tiny” Gallon had 18 points, not to mention grabbing 15 boards as well.

Willie Warren also managed a double-double, putting up 15 points and dishing 11 assists, one of which was an alley-oop to Gallon that had Blake Griffin written all over it. Warren capitalized on the amount of attention he was receiving from the defense of Mount St. Mary’s and was able to set up a lot of easy baskets with his passing.

Andrew Fitzgerald sent a message and proved he deserves a big chunk of minutes, putting up [stat line for Fitz] and doing a lot of dirty work as well, diving for balls all over the court and showing an impressive ability to fight and box out. The 6’9 freshman is usually overlooked despite being an ESPN Top 100 recruit in last year’s class.

The Sooners shot 6 of 16 from beyond the arc, four of which were from Pledger. Perhaps the most impressive stat was the 28 free throws the team earned, and then managing to make 25 of them; a feat which most NBA teams don’t accomplish. And judging by how the team likes to drive to the bucket, hitting their shots from the charity strike is going to be key this season.

The Mountaineers offense was able to capitalize in the first half off the weak transition defense displayed by the Sooners. OU allowed 38 points in the paint, most of which came off of easy layups in transition and almost all of the 10 fast break points by Mount St. Mary’s. The defense did, however, improve in the second half, as the Sooners held the Mountaineers to shooting 37.1 percent from the field.

Season play will resume Tuesday night at 7:00 p.m. CT as the Sooner’s host Louisiana-Monroe at the Lloyd-Noble Center.