Va. Commonwealth upsets No. 17 Oklahoma
November 21, 2009
RICHMOND, Va. (AP)—When Jeff Capel left Virginia Commonwealth to become thehead coach at Oklahoma four years ago, his contract mandated that he bring hisnew team back to Richmond to play the Rams.
Capel received a very warm welcome Saturday night, and then the Rams showedhim that things are just fine without him.
Jay Gavin scored 20 points, Larry Sanders 17 and Virginia Commonwealth nevertrailed in an 82-69 upset of No. 17 Oklahoma on Saturday night.
Gavin, a sophomore guard, wasn’t fazed by 18 professional scouts in thestands.
“I wasn’t really worried about it,” said Gavin. “Our intensity level wasthrough the roof tonight. We concentrated on defense for 40 minutes.”
Leading by one early on, the Rams (2-1) used a 20-8 spurt to take control ofthe game. VCU hit six straight 3-pointers during the run, including two byGavin.
“Congrats to VCU,” said Capel, who was 79-41 as the Rams’ coach. “Theyshot the heck out of the ball. We let our lack of making shots determine how thegame went.
“I knew our team wasn’t as good as everyone had us. This was a great gamefor us. I didn’t like the result but we’ll grow from this game.”
Oklahoma cut its deficit to 31-22 with 8:08 left before going without afield goal for just over 6 minutes. VCU extended its advantage to 40-23 with4:35 left on two free throws by T.J. Gwynn.
The Sooners (1-2) cut the lead to 10 at the half, but could get no closer inthe second half. Oklahoma went through a drought in the second half hitting justtwo field goals over a 10:42 span before Tony Crocker’s 3-pointer made it 75-65with 1:54 left.
The Rams missed only one free throw over the final 23 seconds to end anyhopes of a Sooners rally.
Crocker led the Sooners with 19 points and Tiny Gallon added 15.
It marked the first ranked team to play in the Siegel Center, which openedin 1999.