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Late Vanderbilt Splurge

Rocks Sooners, 78-69

| pair hit 18 of the 36 shots—mostly

By JAY SIMON f
(Daily Oklahoman Sports Writer)

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Dec. 10—

| Oklahoma slowed down Vander-

bilt’s racehorse basketball team
for. about 30 minutes here Satur-
day night, before the Commodores
cracked the game apart wi h.a
torrid 4-minute burst to win, 78-69.

Vandy outshot the Sooners 11-2
during that 4-minute stretch to
rocket ahead by 14 points at 69-55.

The unbeaten Commodores, now
owning four victories this season,
pushed the lead to 15 points with
2% minutes remaining, but Okla-
homa fought back to trim the lead
to nine at the final buzzer.

It was the first. basketball meet-
ing of all time between the
schools and drew. a crowd of 6,000,
largest ever to see a non-confer-
ence game in Nashville, in f act,
only arch foes Kentucky and Ten-
nessee have ever drawn more in
Vandy’s 4-year old fieldhouse.

Sooners Stay Close

‘Oklahoma, dropping its second
game on the current road trip
which ends at Ohio State Monday
night, trailed only 58-53 when the
Southeastern -conference club
caught fire late in the game to
wrap it up.

The Sooners never were able to
take a lead after Vanderbilt burst

in front 6-0 at the outset, but ral-

 

The Box Score

OKL ee (69) G- res oe PEST
‘

Wingy) fe eek 4-11 1 14
ALDOY SPs iar oie, 1-5 3-4 aes
Bacher, io aw eess ves 4-9 6-9 5 14
POC Sie ase oe 8-20 2-2 3 18
Jones £ 3-7 0-0 4 6
Pinkerton; f..25 7... 3-7 0-0 a Ge
BIG 1 eee, 3s 2-6 2-2 Seog
OTAL 25-65 19-24 23 69
VNDRBLT (78) G-GA F-FA PF TP
hy, (£0 2678 2527.84 $-12' 9-13" 1° 15
Gibbs; (£7.00 Stes 2-6 2-3 4 6
Harrison, 6% \. 082 1-13. 0-2 See
ERYIORs B24 os cies « 8-19 7-4 1 20
Rochelle, & ..,.... 10-17 5-8 1 25
TOROR Le oie send 1-5 2-3 Le
GY 5 cb cn ie os Reean- 2-4 0-0 2 4
PVCs. F. Ss's cin sie s 2-2 0
Revers as 0-0. 0 0
TOTALS: oii... 27-76 24-40 13 78
Oklahoma .......0...00.+... 32  3%7—69
Vanderbilt. 36. 22 pease ess 36 42-78

Officials— John Fra (Big Seven)

* and Clyde Castle Teecitonstan confer-

ence

lied to cut the gap to two points
on four occasions late in the first
half.
_ Al Rochelle, Vandy’s hot-shoot-
ing guard who paced the winners
with 25 points, canned a 30-foot
set shot just before the halftime
buzzer to send his team to inter-
mission with a slim 36-32 margin.
Jimmy Peck, Leroy\Bacher an
Joe King all hit twin didits to p

OU with 18 points and Bac
Taylor Scores 20
Rochelle’s running mate on

Vandy’s back line, Babe Taylor,
chipped in with 20 points as the

 

over the top of the Sooners’
proving defense.

For the second game in a row,
coach Doyle Parrack used only.

seven of the 10 men making the |

squad. In addition to starters
Bacher, Peck, King, Ed Abbey
and Joe Jones the only Redshirts
to get in the milling were Gary
Balding and Bill Pinkerton.

The Sooners, missed their first
seven shots and didn’t score from

‘the field until Peck connected on}

a jumper from the top of the cir-
cle with 6% minutes gone.
However, during that stretch
Oklahoma hung in close with dead-
ly free throw shooting, missing

 

im-
;

|

|

only one of eight four shots during '|
the early drought from the field. |

Bacher Cools Off

Bacher paced the Sooners with |

    
  
  
   
  
 

the first half, but got
e goal thereafter and it
less than 4 minutes after in-
ission. The big guy’s failure
hit the rest of the way hurt the
Sooners’ chances of catching up.

Vanderbilt dominated the back-

boards with a 57-46 advantage as|.

Charley Harrison, 6-6 center, and
Bobby Thym, 6-1 forward, grabbed
17 and 15 rebounds respectively.
King was high for the Sooners with
13, while Abbey and Bacher, the
other two men on OU’s front line,
gathered in but six and five against
the vicious ballhawks of Vandy.
For nine minutes in the second
half before the Commodores broke
away the score teetered between
Vandy leads of 5 to 9 ponts. The

Sooners couldn’t pare the margin,

to less than five, although at least
four times they went down with the
ball while trailing by five. Each

| time a wild shot or mechanical er-
‘ror would spoil the bid.

Bacher Fouls
A crucial play occurred to start

the Vanderbilt surge. Behind 58-53

the Sooners swept down and
Bacher sped under the goal but

-was in no position to shoot. He

passed off to King, who had a close
shot, but Bacher fouled Thym in
the process.

Thym converted two free throws
and Vandy led by seven rather
than Oklahoma moving within
three points of a tie.

That was the spark Vandy
needed and from then ‘on the Com
modores set sail for their fourti
straight triumph.

Whita Ie Named

 

1

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