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Rose scores 17 points to fuel Memphis past Oklahoma

Nov 16, 2007 - 6:28 AM NEW YORK (Ticker) -- It wasn't pretty, but freshman Derrick Rose and No. 3 Memphis advanced in the 2K Sports College Hoop Classic.

Rose scored 17 points and Chris Douglas-Roberts scored 12 off the bench as the Tigers posted a 63-53 non-conference victory over Oklahoma in the semifinals on Thursday.

"He's done fine," Memphis coach John Calipari said. "He started in the second half just making plays to win the game. He just did stuff to win the game."

Joey Dorsey had nine points, 13 rebounds and three blocks and Antonio Anderson also scored nine points for Memphis (3-0), which faces Connecticut in the title game on Friday. The Huskies defeated Gardner Webb, 78-66, earlier on Thursday.

"If (Dorsey) didn't do what he did today, we lose the game," Calipari said. "He rebounded when other guys should have rebounded, he got the ball anyway, got a couple of tip-ins."

The 6-4 Rose, one of the most highly recruited high school players in the nation, connected on just 4-of-13 from the floor, but made 8-of-12 from the free-throw line for the Tigers. Rose had averaged 19 points on 58 percent shooting in the first two games for Memphis.

"I'm telling him, go outrun them and get layups," Calipari said. "I'm yelling to him layup, layup, layup, layup because I can see in the open court he's going to get to the rim."

"We needed to win, that's the only thing I was thinking about us winning," Rose said. "They run for the paint, make us shoot jump shots. But we came out with a win (and that's the biggest thing). They just went right to the middle so it was kind of hard."

Memphis, which led, 35-25, at halftime, kept Oklahoma in the game by also missing 10 of its 21 free throws.

Longar Longar scored 13 points and hauled in seven rebounds and Austin Johnson scored nine points off the bench for the Sooners (3-1), who also shot 37 percent (21-of-56) and are 0-6 all-time vs. the Tigers.

"We tried to play zone," Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel said. "That's what we did. We played a few possessions of man and mixed up a couple of different zones and one of the things we wanted to try to do was contest the jump shooters. I thought we did a pretty a good job of that but they're such a good team."