Sin City showdown pits Sooners against Huskies

Dec 20, 2014 - 3:33 PM Las Vegas, NV (SportsNetwork.com) - One of two games on the Saturday schedule to feature a pair of nationally-ranked programs, No. 15 Oklahoma is set to take on No. 16 Washington as part of the MGM Grand Showcase at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Despite having lost a pair of games already, the Sooners are actually ranked one spot higher than the Huskies due to the tougher competition on the schedule in the early going. Oklahoma already has victories over UCLA and Butler, with the team's defeats coming against Creighton (65-63) and Wisconsin (69-56).

Since the setback to the second-ranked Badgers late last month, Oklahoma has responded with three consecutive wins, the most recent being an 85-53 thrashing of in-state rival Oral Roberts on Tuesday.

As for the Huskies, they are one of only a handful programs still undefeated heading into the weekend. The team is perfect through nine games for the first time since 2005-06 when they started 11-0 under head coach Lorenzo Romar, who is now in his 13th season in Seattle. While the team does have an impressive win against San Diego State (49-36) a couple weeks back, more recent wins over Eastern Washington and Grambling have not carried as much weight.

This is just the fourth meeting between the two programs, with the Sooners having won two of the previous three. However, the most recent encounter was won by Washington, 96-91, during the Great Alaska Shootout back in 2004.

Oral Roberts led by a basket early in the game against the Sooners, but that advantage was short-lived as the visitors made a total of just 10 field goals in the first half and shot 33.3 percent for the game, en route to the 32-point blowout loss. Aside from Jordan Woodard who tallied eight points, to go along with eight assists, every Oklahoma starter scored in double figures led by Buddy Hield with 16 points and TaShawn Thomas with 14. Isaiah Cousins and Ryan Spangler both dropped in 13 points, the latter also clearing 10 rebounds -- all at the defensive end of the floor.

Hield currently leads four players scoring in double figures with his 16.0 ppg, although he is shooting just 38.3 percent from the floor. He makes up for that somewhat with his 37.7 percent accuracy behind the 3-point line, while clearing 5.4 rpg. Spangler has three double-doubles on the season and is close to averaging one at the moment with 10.0 ppg and 8.4 rpg.

While the defense was staunch against Grambling, giving up only 38 points, that's still more than the nationally-ranked Aztecs tallied back on Dec, 7. Nevertheless, Washington ran all over the Tigers by forcing 17 turnovers and holding the visitors to only 23.3 percent shooting from the field as they built a massive 45-13 advantage at the break and continued to run away in the second half on Wednesday night at Alaska Airlines Arena.

Shawn Kemp Jr. scored a game-high 21 points on 9-of-12 shooting from the floor, followed by Andrew Andrews with 16 points, converting 4-of-8 beyond the arc. Off the bench the Huskies were given a huge lift by Robert Upshaw and his double-double consisting of 15 points and a game-high 15 rebounds, while Mike Anderson responded with 10 points, six boards and five assists. Bidding for a double-double of his own was Nigel Williams-Goss with nine points and a game- high 11 assists.

Williams-Goss has shown himself to be a complete player, outside of his mere 25.8 percent shooting beyond the arc, as he leads Washington in scoring (14.6 ppg) and assists (62) and is also one of the better rebounders on the squad with 5.4 rpg. Upshaw, who has come off the bench in all nine games, is responsible for 10.9 ppg and a team-high 7.1 rpg, not to mention a total of 43 blocked shots, placing him among the nation's leaders in that category entering the weekend.