Campbellsville knocked backwards in Oklahoma State loss
Brandon Williams, seen here against Western Kentucky, led CU with 10 points in his first start for the Tigers. (Richard RoBards, Campbellsville University)
STILLWATER, Okla. — Campbellsville University’s took a beating on the road Friday night, as Oklahoma State University dished out a 102-38 exhibition loss in Stillwater, Okla.
The Tigers were in a similar spot as last season’s exhibition opener against preseason No. 4 Kentucky, scoring only 38 points offensively, but as CU head coach Keith Adkins quickly pointed out “We gave up a whole lot more.”
Campbellsville was limited to less than 20 percent shooting, while Oklahoma State shot nearly 60 percent from the floor in the exhibition win, which had eight Cowboys with at least nine points.
While CU battled and competed for 35 of the 40 minutes in an 80-57 loss at Western Kentucky University on Oct. 31, Adkins said he felt his team took a step backwards in Stillwater.
“It was a great experience to play in that arena against a Big XII opponent, but obviously we expected to be a little competitive,” Adkins said. “That was probably the most disappointing thing, because I feel we took a step back. We didn’t compete. We didn’t show a lot of toughness. We’ve got to exude confidence when we step out onto the floor and show a lot of toughness. We’ve got to be better than what we were tonight.”
Oklahoma State jumped out to an11-0 lead before Monie Hudson hit a three pointer to end a near seven-minute dry spell forCampbellsville at the 13:21 mark. The Tigers missed their first seven shots and had five turnovers in the first six minutes of the game. The Cowboys threw in a nice mix of pounding the ball inside and connecting on just enough shots from long range to keep the Campbellsville defense uneasy. OSU led 52-18 at the half.
The second half was just as dominant as the first as Oklahoma State continued to score on fast-break layups as the Cowboy defense led to multiple baskets. OSU finished with 24 fast-break points. The Tigers shot just 19.7 percent for the game, including 5-of-36 (13.9 percent) from beyond the three-point arc.
“That’s the down side of these exhibition games,” Adkins said. “When there’s such a size disadvantage and athletic disadvantage, it comes down to changing some things or doing some things differently than what we’ll do at our level.”
Brandon Williams got his first start for the Tigers, leading the team with 10 points, including three field goals and four free throws, before fouling out in the second half. Brett Crittenden of Tribune Kan., was second in scoring for CU with seven points, as he was playing in front of more than a dozen of his family members that traveled to the game. Adkins said a few other families traveled, as well as a handful of CU boosters and team physician, Dr. Bobby Brooks, who is the father-in-law of Oklahoma State head coach Travis Ford.
For Oklahoma State, junior guard Keiton Page led all Cowboy scorers with 14 points, Jéan-Paul Olukemi scored 13 while senior Marshall Moses and sophomore Ray Penn each chipped in 12. Darrell Williams had his second-straight double-figure rebounding exhibition game with 13 boards to go along with nine points. Jared Shaw had nine points, eight rebounds and six blocked shots.
The game was the first meeting between Ford and Adkins, who coached together at Campbellsville from 1997 to 2000. After Ford’s three-year stint as the Tigers’ head coach, Adkins succeeded the former Kentucky point guard and is now in his 11th season as CU’s head coach. Ford is the first former CU basketball coach (men’s or women’s) to ever coach against Campbellsville University.
Campbellsville will open the 2010-11 season in Georgetown College’s Andrew Elswick Memorial Tournament, Nov. 12-13. The Tigers meet Southern Universityof New Orleansin the season opener Friday, Nov. 12 at 4 p.m., and then will face St. Catharine College or Georgetown on Saturday at a time to be announced.
Friday’s opener can be heard on the Campbellsville University Sports Network, via K-Country 105.7 FM in Central Kentucky or online at www.KCountry1057.com.
Oklahoma State will open its season Saturday, Nov. 13 against former NAIA school Houston Baptist.
Story Link: http://www.campbellsvilletigers.com/article/1384.php
Box Score: http://www.campbellsvilletigers.com/d/MBB2010_11/OSU_v_Camp.pdf
QUOTES
Keith Adkins
On visiting with Travis Ford
“It was fun, at least when it started. We didn’t get to spend a whole lot of time together before the game, certainly not as much as I’d have liked. At some point we need to get an opportunity to sit down and talk about the important things in life other than basketball. I’m sure that time will come one day.”
On lessons learned in the loss
“We’ll take from this some humility and some points of reference. We’ve got to be mentally tougher and physically tougher. You don’t want to take a beating like we did tonight, but it shows us our weaknesses. It shows us what we’re good at, what we’re bad at and some things we need to work on.”
On high points of the game
“We will not see an opponent the rest of the year this good, that’s obvious. They were able to take advantage about some things about us, most opponents our level won’t be able to take advantage of. They show us where we have to get better. I’m not concerned with the score of these games. I’m concerned of where we come out of these games and where we improve and what we learn from them.”
On the week ahead
“We’ve got a lot of things to work on. We’re by no means back at square one, but we absolutely took a step back tonight. We have four days of practice, starting Monday, going into our first game. From here on, everything counts, and we’ve got to make sure we don’t trip up like we did tonight.”
