OU Basketball: Oklahoma Beats Louisville to Win it All in Atlantis

The Sooners took home their first Battle 4 Atlantis championship with a dramatic victory over Louisville on Friday.

Oklahoma forward Jalon Moore / Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

Oklahoma has its first island trophy.

The Sooners stayed unbeaten on Friday with a 69-64 victory over Louisville in the championship game of the Battle 4 Atlantis at Imperial Arena in The Bahamas.

Jalon Moore scored 24 points to carry OU offensively, but it was Sam Godwin’s leaping steal off an inbounds pass in front of the Oklahoma bench with five seconds left that all but clinched it.

"We told Sam to put it on the ball, and just keep jumping," Moser said. "He's got long arms. He's bouncy. We just said, 'Just keep jumping.' He just kept on jumping, staying with it. And then he not only got the deflection, he's got the presence of mind to keep it in bounds and go grab it, and that's a heck of a play." 

Duke Miles made two free throws on the other end of the floor to salt away the Sooners’ first championship on their third trip to The Bahamas. The Sooners (7-0) return home after impressive victories over Providence and Arizona to get the championship game.

Glenn Taylor scored 12 and Jeremiah Fears had 10 for the Sooners, who had to overcome a major rebounding disadvantage. Louisville had 21 offensive rebounds to OU’s 4, and the Cardinals had 63 field goal attempts, compared to just 44 for Oklahoma. Louisville outscored OU 25-7 on second-chance points, and 34-22 in the paint.

But OU was 19-of-25 at the free throw line, while Louisville was just 9-of-16.

At one point in the second half, Moore had half of his team's points: 24 of their 48. He finished 7-of-13 from the floor, including 2-of-3 from 3-point range, and was 8-of-9 from the free throw line.

"He's worked so hard on his shot," Moser said, "and I've told him, when his feet are set, he's shot-ready, he can really knock it down, and that's the confidence. But he also has been finishing through contact more, and he got in transition, he got to the foul line.

"And then he was being crafty, step, step, going underneath, and just really making plays. But he was fighting through fatigue too, that's what I thought, 35 minutes on the third day in a row. Come on, that's tough."

Louisville led 5-0 off the jump, but the Sooners quickly seized control and built a 10-point lead late in the first half.

Moore got a dunk with a second on the clock to give OU a 39-32 halftime lead, but Louisville scored the first six points after halftime to cut it 39-38.

Moore then scored OU’s next seven points — two free throws, a turnaround jump shot and a 3-pointer — to put Oklahoma up 48-42, and Kobe Elvis’ driving layup gave the Sooners a 50-42 lead.

The Cardinals continued applying the pressure with second-chance points, however, including a 3-pointer by Reyne Smith that made it 50-45 and a tip-in by J’vonne Hadley that cut it 50-47. Scott James’ putback dunk with 8:35 to play cut OU’s lead to 52-51.

Two free throws by Jeremiah Fears and a pull-up jumper by Elvis pushed the Sooners to a 56-51 lead with 6:48 to go.

But the Sooners, who suffered turnover problems in their first two games on the islands, committed back-to-back turnovers before a strong driving layup by Glenn Taylor with 5:55 left that put OU on top 58-.

OU Stats

Smith then made a long angle 3 with 5:06 to play that tied it 58-58.

Taylor finished a runout layup at the 4:18 mark to put Oklahoma back up 2, and his two free throws with 2:40 to go gave OU a 62-59 lead. Taylor’s turnaround bucket with 1:34 to play — after Louisville couldn’t convert four offensive rebounds — put OU back into a 64-59 lead. 

Still, the Cardinals rallied as Hadley buried a 3-pointer at the 1:26 mark to make it 64-62.

Fears gathered a loose ball at the top of the circle and sliced quickly to the bucket to put Oklahoma up 66-62 with 64 seconds left, but Chucky Hepburn immediately answered with a driving layup that made it 66-64 at the 49-second mark.

Moore missed the front end of a 1-and-1 free throw with 27.4 seconds on the clock, but when Louisville missed on the other end, Fears gathered a contested rebound and drew a foul with 12.3 seconds left. 

Fears, however, made the first free throw and missed the second, giving Oklahoma a 67-64 lead as Louisville called timeout with 8.1 seconds to play.

On the inbounds play, Godwin was subbed in to defender the passer. Godwin leaped twice as Chucky Hepburn looked for an option, and Godwin tipped the pass as Hepburn let it go. Godwin then chased down the loose ball and Duke Miles made two free throws with 5.2 seconds left to ice it.

Moser said the strategy coming out of the timeout was to foul on the catch and send Louisville to the free throw line. But Godwin had other ideas.

"Just really fortunate we didn't have to get to that because of that play Sam made," Moser said.