Sooners, Everett get by Eagles - Daily OK (12-29-05)

[ORUTerry]

Sooners, Everett get by Eagles

By Justin Harper

The Oklahoman

NORMAN - Terrell Everett figured out how to get the ball in the basket just in time for No. 14 Oklahoma to avoid an upset loss at home.

Boxscore

Notes

Everett?s late-game heroics allowed the Sooners to escape Oral Roberts 81-73 Wednesday in front of 8,123 at Lloyd Noble Center. The senior point guard rebounded from a scoreless first half to post 17 after intermission, including nine in the final 4:30.

?We came in at halftime and coaches told me to keep attacking. A lot of my teammates told me to keep attacking,? said Everett, who was 0-for-7 shooting before his first make. ?Early in the second half I got one of those shots to go and after that I just started feeling it. Shots started falling for me.?

While it took Everett 23 minutes to get going, Kevin Bookout was strong from start to finish. The senior forward scored a season-high 24 points and had a game-high tying 10 rebounds. Nate Carter added a career-high 16 points and Taj Gray had 12.

Bookout made 10 of 18 shots, most coming on jump hooks.

?I was so confident today,? Bookout said. ?Yesterday before practice, we worked on (jump hooks) for 50 minutes. You have to have a go-to move. I found that hook shot and I feel like I can make from anywhere on the court.?

Said OU coach Kelvin Sampson: ?We had to get that thing out of the trunk and dust it off.?

Oral Roberts (5-6) shot 54.9 percent from the field. Led by junior forward Caleb Green?s 18 points and 10 rebounds, the Golden Eagles took the game to the wire. ORU trailed 75-73 with 1:02 left to play before OU scored the final six points of the game.

?I couldn?t have scripted it any better,? Sampson said. ?We needed a game like this.?

Perhaps. But what OU (7-2) didn?t need was a second-straight loss. Everett, who went scoreless for the first time in his career against Coppin State on Dec. 10, came alive when he needed to. Coming into the game, Everett was averaging just 6.0 points per game in his last three outings.

?(He?s) been sleep-walking half the year,? Sampson said. ?When we were picked preseason top 10, it was because of the way Terrell was playing there at the end.?

OU hasn?t looked like a top 10 team defensively the last two games. Although the Sooners did force 18 turnovers, they allowed ORU to make more than half its shots after West Virginia drained 66.7 percent against OU last Thursday.

?We still have some work to do defensively,? Bookout said. ?But I thought we showed some toughness tonight.?

Sampson said give some credit to ORU?s players, particularly Green.

?You know what that kid was doing?? Sampson said. ?He was twirling to his left shoulder and making 16-foot jump hooks. I?ve never seen a kid do that in my life. He was uncanny doing that. Caleb Green is good.?

ORU?s Larry Owens had 15 points and Jonathan Bluitt added 13 points. Tutt had 10.

[ORUIsbig]

Apparently this Newspaper is the "Daily Central Oklahoman"

You would have never known ORU was acutually in Oklahoma from that story.

At least the "Tulsa" world does a story from both sides. I hate OKC. (No offence OKC Eagle)

[OKC Eagle]

The paper has gone downhill in the last few years. I was , however, please with the truthful "get by" headline. Its possible the writer made the bad assumption that everyone knows ORU is in Tulsa. Of course, a lot of OKC residents probably don't know where Tulsa is.

[ORUIsbig]

All right, i eat my words, i didn't realize that other story on green was from the daily oklahoman. My bad.