KU defense puts stamp in victory over Sooners

By Jim Baker     Feb 21, 1999

NORMAN, OKLA. – Roy Williams’ 300th coaching victory may rank as Kansas’ most impressive win of the 1998-99 season.

“I think it’s a bigger win than the one at Missouri,” Kansas center Eric Chenowith exclaimed Saturday after scoring 24 point, grabbing 12 rebounds and blocking three shots in the Jayhawks’ 60-50 men’s basketball meltdown of red-hot Oklahoma, a team that entered with six consecutive victories.

“We play tough. We outbattled them. We played defense the way Kansas teams are supposed to play defense,” Chenowith added.

The Jayhawks’ in-your-face pressure defense completely befuddled Oklahoma (19-8 overall, 10-4 Big 12) before a record crowd of 13,219 at Noble Center.

Kansas (18-8, 10-4) held the Sooners to miserable 26.5 shooting, the worst shooting performance by a Kelvin Sampson-coached OU team.

In the first half, Oklahoma hit five of 31 shots for 16.1 percent, the same percentage Missouri shot against KU in the Tigers’ 73-61 home loss to the Jayhawks. Thanks in large part to 1-of-16 three-point shooting, OU trailed 20-14 at halftime.

The 14 points were the fewest in a half for OU in 152 games under Sampson. It was also KU’s best defensive performance for a half since Texas Tech tallied 14 first-half points a year ago.

“T.J. Pugh was yelling all game, ‘Play like a bunch of wild dogs,” Chenowith said of Pugh, who held OU’s Eduardo Najera to nine points on 4-of-16 shooting.

Pugh sprained his right ankle late in the game, but it shouldn’t keep him from playing Monday’s Senior Night contest again Oklahoma State (8:35 p.m., Allen Fieldhouse.)

“We’ve been working hard on defense since the Texas Tech game (90-84 loss on Feb. 13). Coach Williams had us come in for a two-hour practice the morning after that game,” Chenowith said. “It was all defense. It showed us how hard we had to work at it.”

“I was embarrassed,” Williams said of the Tech set-back. KU is 2-0 since that disastrous loss, which featured 41 points from Rayford Young. “I always though I could coach better and we cold play better on the defensive end of the floor.”

Williams won’t give KU’s defense all the credit for Saturday’s victory.

The Sooners missed 25 of 32 three-pointers. Eric Martin, who was hitting .497 from three-point range just two games ago, missed all eight of his three-point tries. Najera missed all five, while Alex Spaulding came up empty on three attempts.

“Nick Bradford was sensational defensively the second half,” Williams said. “He kept getting out on Martin. T.J. spent a lot of time on Najera. The key was, we were good defensively. We caught Oklahoma on a day they weren’t hitting their shots, too.”

Chenowith, who scored no points in his last game – KU’s 62-47 win over Kansas State on Wednesday – hit all four of his shots from the floor and scored eight points the first half. That’s not half bad, considering his teammates went five-for-21.

“It helped me when my first shot went in. It didn’t feel good off my hand and it still went in,” Chenowith said. “I was not embarrassed or frustrated after Kansas State. The coaches told me I played a great defensive game. The motivation was to win for the conference race (KU moved into second-place tie), to beat a great Oklahoma team and win No. 300 for coach Williams. That’s a lot of wins in 11 years.”

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