All the new college sports right now are about the start of the college football season, but believe it or not, the Oklahoma men’s basketball team has also been in action recently and making headlines of their own. .
Sooner’s men have just been on an overseas exhibition tour of Spain and France and came away with three impressive wins in as many games, led by several new faces.
Oklahoma’s new men’s team, which includes eight new players who weren’t with the Sooners last season, began their 10-day foreign tour in Barcelona, Spain with a 97-41 victory on August 4 against Mataro Select.
A pair of new arrivals OR, Joe Bamasile and Grant Sherfield led the way for the Sooners, scoring 22 and 14 points respectively. Bamasile, who transferred to Oklahoma from George Washington, was 10 of 13 from the field, including two of three on three balls. In addition to his 14 points, Sherfield, a transfer guard from Nevada, recorded six assists.
Two days after the victory over Mataro, the Sooners faced another selected European team, Maresme Select, in Barcelona. OU scored early and often and ran away with a 103-71 win.
Sherfield and Basimile again led OU, except this time in reverse order. Sherfield had a team-high 19 points, including five three-pointers. Bamasile contributed 14 points with a dozen rebounds. Two other newcomers from Sooner, Luke Northweather and Milos Uzan, added 16 and 9 points, respectively. Uzan also contributed nine assists to Sooner’s win.
Oklahoma opened up a 56-33 halftime advantage and stretched the margin to 30 points in the third quarter.
Head coach Porter Moser’s Sooner side wrapped up their European tour last Tuesday in France with a 91-53 win over the Paris All-Stars.
The two teams clashed in the first quarter before Oklahoma went on a seven-point run in the second quarter to open a 36-15 margin. The Sooners never looked back from there.
Basimile and second guard CJ Noland led the way in Paris with 16 points apiece and fellow sophomore Bijan Cortes added 13 more. Noland and Cortes both buried three three-point shots.
In the three wins, Oklahoma averaged 97 points per game while holding its three opponents to 55 points. Bamasile led the team in scoring on the circuit, averaging 17.3 points per game.
With so many new faces on the roster, OU’s overseas tour has helped the team get to know each other better and build chemistry and comfort by playing together on the pitch under playing conditions. the team a milestone when they meet again for official team practices in the fall.
