Everett Leads Sooners in Upset

Oklahoma sacrificed a little bit of offense for a scrappy, stingy defense that kept Kansas reeling.

The No. 22-ranked Sooners handed the No. 8 Jayhawks their third consecutive loss, with Terrell Everett scoring 19 points and freshman David Godbold scoring a career-high 15 in Oklahoma’s 71-63 victory Monday night at Norman, Okla.

Kansas (20-4 overall, 10-3 Big 12 Conference), which lost to Texas Tech in double overtime and Iowa State in overtime last week, has lost three games in a row for the first time since falling to Oklahoma State, Missouri and Nebraska from Feb. 16 to 23, 1994. The Jayhawks haven’t lost four in a row since an eight-game losing streak in 1988-89.

“We’re not done,” Kansas guard J.R. Giddens said. “The Jayhawks are not done.”

Oklahoma’s Johnnie Gilbert tied a career high with 12 points, and the Sooners relied on two unlikely offensive heroes. Godbold, a freshman, had been averaging 3.4 points, and Gilbert, a reserve, had been averaging 2.4 points.

Coach Kelvin Sampson was watching his son play in high school when he happened upon Godbold, and Godbold originally was expected to walk on. Even after he was offered a scholarship, he was considered a redshirt candidate.

“You don’t have to be on somebody’s list to be good,” Sampson said.

Godbold developed into a solid defender and earned a growing role, eventually working his way into the starting lineup three games ago.

“He’s an unbelievable character kid and he’s got a great attitude and he works to get better,” Sampson said. “David’s one of those kids that doesn’t want a lot of attention. He just plays the game.”

Godbold was seven for 12 against Kansas, including a basket off an offensive rebound that helped put the game away with 2 1/2 minutes to play.

Godbold and Gilbert benefited from Everett’s ability to slash through the Jayhawk defense to create openings elsewhere.

“We just tried to spread them and drive a lot,” Everett said. “Godbold was hitting shots, and I was getting pretty open too.”

Kansas rallied from 19 points down in the first half to get to within a point midway through the second half, but the Sooners (20-6, 9-4) held on to drop the Jayhawks out of a first-place tie with Oklahoma State.

After trailing, 37-18, with 1 minute 10 seconds left in the first half, the Jayhawks scored the last four points before intermission and the first five of the second half.

They used an 11-2 run, capped by Giddens’ three-point basket off a pass from Wayne Simien, to cut the deficit to one, 47-46. Aaron Miles started the run with four consecutive free throws, and Giddens and Simien followed with jump shots.

“We never feel like we’re out of a game no matter how many we’re down,” Giddens said. “We knew we were gonna get back in the game. We just didn’t execute down the stretch.”

The Sooners scored six consecutive points to stretch the lead to eight, 60-52, with Godbold grabbing a rebound and making a jump shot in the lane with 2:33 left.

The Jayhawks got within four points on several occasions after that, but Drew Lavender made all four of his free throws and Everett made two free throws to secure the victory.

New Mexico 65, No. 13 Utah 54 -- Mark Walters scored a season-high 22 points at Albuquerque, and the Lobos (20-6, 7-4 Mountain West Conference) put an end to the Utes’ 18-game winning streak.

The Utes (23-4, 11-1), who had clinched the conference regular-season title, shot only 37%. Utah had been ranked second in the nation in field-goal percentage (52.8%) and third in rebounding margin.

No. 19 Connecticut 88, Notre Dame 74 -- Charlie Villanueva matched his career high with 25 points, and sophomore point guard Marcus Williams was a rebound shy of a triple-double to lead the Huskies (18-6, 10-3 Big East) at Hartford, Conn.

Williams finished with 17 points, 12 assists and nine rebounds. Jim Calhoun pulled to within two victories of becoming the sixth active coach with 700.

Colin Falls led Notre Dame (16-8, 8-6) with 19 points.

No. 25 Nevada 70, Tulsa 56 -- Nick Fazekas had 15 points and 15 rebounds to help the host Wolf Pack (21-5, 13-2 Western Athletic Conference) win its first game ever as a ranked team.

Nevada, which has its best record at this point since starting the 1945-46 season 21-4, held the Golden Hurricane (7-17, 3-11) to 31% shooting from the field.