Jacob Groves stood alone in the corner.
The junior forward’s brother, fellow Eastern Washington transfer Tanner Groves, received a pass while rolling to the basket from redshirt senior guard Jordan Goldwire, drove the lane and kicked it to him. Jacob caught the pass and let it fly for his third of six 3s on the night.
The 𝑮𝒓𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒔 Brothers 🤝📺 Bally Sports Oklahoma+ pic.twitter.com/0U3bQRKgL7
— Oklahoma Basketball (@OU_MBBall) November 2, 2021
Jacob finished his OU debut with 20 points and six 3-pointers in 17 minutes on a perfect 7-for-7 shooting. The Sooners looked dominant on their way to a 106-57 win over Rogers State in their exhibition game Monday, with every player in uniform getting playing time.
“(Jacob Groves) is always in the gym,” said senior guard Umoja Gibson who finished with 19 points and four 3-pointers. “An hour before practice he’s putting up shots, game-like shots and it showed off today. It just shows you what type of player he is, we see it all the time when we scrimmage, he makes big shots.”
OU’s offense shot 66.7 percent from 3-point range, knocking down 18 total 3s. After shooting 34.1 percent as a team last season, the deep ball is something the Sooners are looking to improve on.
Oklahoma also moved the ball well offensively, finishing with 25 assists and only nine turnovers. The Sooners’ defense stood strong, forcing seven steals while swatting two blocks.
“I thought we came out and played with an intensity, I thought we were loud and noisy,” said head coach Porter Moser, who was hired away from Loyola-Chicago to replace the retired Lon Kruger on April 3. “To play as hard as we want defensively, it’s got to be for 40 minutes. We’ve got to practice really hard, but I was pleased with a lot of things defensively.”
It was crucial for the Sooners to start fast in their lone exhibition game of the season. They did just that, as they went on a 35-13 run in the first 12 minutes of the first half.
“I think we executed a lot,” said senior guard Elijah Harkless, who finished with 13 points, two rebounds and two assists. “We got the ball moving, we didn’t force a lot of shots and I think that helped us out a lot to have our percentage as good as it was.”
Tanner finished with only two points on three attempts in 18 minutes. SMU transfer redshirt senior Ethan Chargois turned in a nice effort in his Sooners debut by scoring six points, grabbing six rebounds and dishing five assists.
Among the players who made their debuts were freshmen guards Alston Mason, C.J. Noland and Bijan Cortes. Noland finished with 13 points in 20 minutes, while Mason and Cortes scored six each in 17 and 14 minutes, respectively.
“Each of them had a lot of good things,” Moser said. “Sometimes the (freshmen) come out really… starry-eyed the first time fans are in the stands and I didn’t think they really felt that way. I liked what they did.
“We’ll watch the film and break down some things they can do better, but I liked their confidence coming in there, I liked their aggressiveness. As all freshmen do, they've just got to continue to get stronger for the physicality of the game as we move on.”
Oklahoma plays Northwestern State in its regular season opener at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 9, at the Lloyd Noble Center on Bally Sports Oklahoma.
