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Sooners Defeat Flames, Musketeers En Route to Sweet 16 March 17, 2002
Oklahoma Sooner Fans have been waiting to exhale since the NCAA Tournament started, thanks to a 78-65 victory over Xavier on Sunday, they can breathe again. Overcoming the ghost of NCAA Tournament past was a tremendous obstacle for Oklahoma, but for the first time since 1999 the Sooners are still dancing after the first weekend.
Aaron McGhee scored a combined 51 points and pulled down 17 rebounds in the win over Xavier and first round 71-63 victory over Illinois-Chicago. McGhee was tough, swift, and clutch in the two wins, performing like an All-American as he has since early February.
"I take every game as a personal challenge. I guess since our team won the game, I was the better player in the game," said McGhee, the former Cincinnati Bearcat who transferred to OU for playing time and grew up in the process. "When you come to the program, you have to learn things. Coach Sampson makes boys into men."
The Sooner defense once again frustrated a team into taking bad shots and tough turnovers. Xavier Head Coach Thad Matta was another impressed coach in the warpath of the Sooners.
"We didn't get beat by a good team. We got beat by a great team. They were clicking on all cylinders at all the right times, right out of the gate and right at the end. We couldn't get over the hump. All the things I feared that OU would do happened, (Aaron) McGhee getting going early and (Ebi) Ere making shots. They are a good team and we didn't want it to end, but I guess all things come to an end."
Oklahoma became the fourth Big 12 school to advance to the Sweet 16 with their win and if all schools won their next contests they would meet to advance to the Final Four. Oklahoma and Missouri would meet in the West while Kansas and Texas would meet in the Midwest. First Oklahoma must dispose of Arizona, Missouri of UCLA, Kansas of Illinois, and Texas of Oregon.
The Sooners will next meet Arizona in San Jose, California on Thursday evening. The game will be televised by CBS, game-times are to be announced.
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