Oklahoma Sooners-East Texas A&M men's basketball

Freshman guard Jeremiah Fears during the game against East Texas A&M on Nov. 21.

 Willie Gillespie/OU Daily

Oklahoma (8-0) defeated Georgia Tech (4-4) 76-61 in the SEC/ACC challenge Tuesday night at the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman.

The Sooners overcame poor shooting in the first half to pull away in the second and remain undefeated. Freshman guard Jeremiah Fears led the way with 18 points and three assists. Senior forward Jalon Moore finished the night with a double-double, scoring 15 points and collecting 11 rebounds against his former team.

Here are three takeaways from OU’s victory:

Sooners' offense gets off to slow start

OU put themselves in a hole early against the Yellowjackets and struggled to generate offense in the first half.

The Sooners shot a measly 32% (8 of 25) from the floor — which is their worst shooting output in a first half all season. The poor start was combined with hot Georgia Tech shooting and the Sooners quickly fell behind by as many as 11 points less than eight minutes into the game. OU only managed 30 points in the first half and went into the locker room behind 34-30.

OU was led by graduate transfer guard Kobe Elvis with nine points in the first half. Senior transfers Duke Miles and Brycen Goodine as well as Moore all contributed five points to Oklahoma’s 30-points.

“We weren’t moving the ball as well as we needed to in the first half,” head coach Porter Moser said following the game. “I thought we maybe had some heavy legs coming off of the Bahamas, but I told the guys at halftime that we needed to start moving the ball better in the second half.”

OU rebounding struggles continue in first half

In two of their three games at the Battle 4 Atlantis Challenge, the Sooners were out rebounded in the first half. That trend continued against the Yellowjackets as OU entered the halftime break with a 21-15 rebounding deficit.

Georgia Tech junior forward Duncan Powell brought in eight rebounds to lead his team, including two offensive boards. Freshman center Doryan Onwuchekwa pulled in four boards and senior guard Terry Lance grabbed three.

For the Sooners, Moore and senior forward Glenn Taylor Jr. led the way with four rebounds each. Elvis and senior forward Sam Godwin both snatched two boards.

Moore finished the game with 11 total boards, Elvis and Godwin both finished with four boards. OU finished the game with a 37-33 total rebounding edge.

“Flipping the rebounding number was a big reason why we were able to win this one,” Moser said. “We talked about it at half and really drove home getting into better positions down low, and I thought that helped us flip that number.”

Sooners use runs to flip game in the second half

Two timely OU runs in the second half flipped this game in the Sooners’ favor.

The first was a 9-0 burst out of the locker room to open up the second half.

After heading into halftime trailing 34-30, OU came out hot and took the lead for good. The run began with a quick four-point burst by Fears followed by a Duke Miles three-pointer and a Moore fast break layup to put the Sooners on top 39-34.

The second run came later in the second half.

With 9:53 to go, Georgia Tech cut the Sooners' lead which had been as high as 10 down to six, and the Yellowjackets began to accumulate a little momentum. However, OU then went on a quick 6-0 spurt, primarily at the free throw line, to push the lead back up to double digits with 8:00 minutes to go.

Fears and Godwin knocked down four combined free throws and Miles completed the quick spurt with a layup to close out the win.

Next, the Sooners will look to build on their undefeated season as they face Alcorn State (0-8) in the students-only game at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 7 inside McCasland Field House.

This story was edited by Gracie Rawlings. 

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