Porter Moser is certainly thankful for Kobe Elvis and Jeremiah Fears.
Elvis scored 24 points, including a huge bucket with just over two minutes to play, and Fears had 20 as Oklahoma stayed undefeated in a pre-Thanksgiving thriller with Providence.
OU overcame a huge mistake in the final seconds to beat the Friars 79-77 in their opener of the Battle 4 Atlantis at Imperial Arena in The Bahamas.
“There’s a lot to unpack in that very eventful last minute,” Moser said.
OU improved to 5-0 while Providence fell to 5-1.
Fears was 11-of-12 from the free throw line and overcame eight turnovers with seven assists and four rebounds, and Elvis was 10-of-14 from the field and made two late free throws.
“He was super efficient,” Moser said of Elvis. “Made shots, but he was efficient. Didn’t take a lot of bad shots. He really made some good shots. And I thought that was huge. Got to the foul line … but super efficient. I mean, 26 points on 14 shots, really efficient. And he was one of the top 10 efficient guys last year.
And Fears, Moser said, is “just continuing to grow. He can do so many good things. I mean, he drew 10 fouls because his speed. So that’s an undervalued stat. When I look at it like, it’s not undervalued by us.”
Wesley Cardet led the Friars with 17 points, and Beesley Joseph and Jayden Pierre each scored 16.
Oklahoma opened with an 8-0 run — the longest run by either team all day — but the game featured only two lead changes and one tie as OU led for 23 minutes and Providence led for nearly 17. Neither team led by double digits.
“I thought it was a very physical game, you know,” Elvis said. “I think we, you know, came out and punched them, and then they had their punch. You know, that’s basketball, though. It’s a game of runs.”
Elvis missed two free throws with 1:46 to play, but the Sooner defense got a key stop as Oklahoma held on through some late drama.
OU led 75-68 when Duke Miles made a breakaway layup with 44 seconds to go after Fears pulled down a defensive rebounds and fed Miles for the assist.
After Joseph hit a 3 with 28 seconds to play, Brycen Goodine made 1-of-2 free throws to make it 77-71 with 15.8 seconds left. Goodine had missed the previous three games with injury.
Pierre then made two free throws with 9 seconds left, and Elvis traveled on the inbounds pass, giving the Friars another free possession. Providence’s Corey Floyd scored a layup with 5.9 seconds to go to make it 77-75.
Elvis went back to the line with 3.7 seconds to play and buried a pair of free throws to make it 79-75 — seemingly putting the game away — but Oklahoma then committed a massive substitution infraction on the inbounds pass.
At first, it appeared Oklahoma was called for a foul on a halfcourt heave, but officials decided to review the play. It was determined that OU sent in a sub from the scorer’s table and actually had six players on the floor, giving Pierre two technical foul free throws and Providence the basketball with 3.7 seconds to play.
Moser said his standard philosophy is to sub in the final seconds when OU is at the free throw line and the other team is trying to get upcourt quickly.
“They were trying to get it in and boatrace it up the court,” Moser said. “So we were going to sub.”
Instead, the sub wasn’t cleared to come in the game and stepped onto the floor prematurely.
“I’ll take it,” Moser said. “When you have young kids, some guys that haven’t played before, if they don’t understand about going to check in before we do it, that’s on me. I’ll take that.”
Pierre made both free throws and after taking two dribbles on the inbounds had a clean look at the game-winning 3-pointer, but it clanged off the back of the rim as the buzzer sounded.
“You find a way to win close games,” Moser said. “ … You believe there’s a million ways to win a game — and there’s a million ways to lose a game, as we almost found out just now. I don’t know if I’ve ever lost a game by just running in without checking in. But, you found a way to win. That’s what you can build on.”
OU shot 51 percent from the field, including 7-of-19 from 3-point range. The Sooners were out rebounded 38-25 by the bigger Friars, but still outscored Providence 30-22 in the paint and thanks to a 12-5 advantage in steals, outscored their opponent 10-6 on fast break points.
“If a team shoots 51 percent from the field against us, I think something’s wrong,” said Providence coach Kim English.
The ending wasn’t clean, as OU nearly blew a perfectly safe lead and had to overcome a catastrophic error. But it was a win, and winning — especially against a good team from the Big East Conference — was just what this team needed.
“I think that this was great shared adversity,” Elvis said. “I’d say, you know, for the guys, early on in the season, and think this is what we came to the Battle for Atlantis for. We wanted this shared adversity early on in the season, so that way later on, we could be more together.”
