TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Griffin Powers Sooners To Win

ADVERTISEMENT

The Associated Press

The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 22, 2009

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Michigan bumped Blake Griffin around, knocked him to the floor, even bloodied his nose. There were no wrestling takedowns, but the Wolverines still gave it to him pretty good.

Nothing worked.

Oklahoma's bulldozer of a power forward took the hits and kept rolling, finishing with 33 points and 17 rebounds in a 73-63 victory over Michigan on Saturday night to send the Sooners back into the NCAA's round of 16 for the first time in six years.

"He's a fantastic player on a fantastic team," Michigan coach John Beilien said.

Still sore after being dumped head over heels by Morgan State's Ameer Ali, Griffin played part of the first half with a cotton swab in his nose and had to cover up a scratch on his elbow after being knocked around by the Wolverines.

Like he has all season, the 6-foot-10, 251-pound sophomore shrugged off the beating and kept charging, scoring 20 points in the second half for the second-seeded Sooners (29-5). They'll face the Syracuse-Arizona State winner in next week's South Region semifinals in Memphis, Tenn.

"This was so much fun," Griffin said. "This is what we play for and it's just fun when everybody is playing well and everybody is doing their thing."

Michigan (21-14) pulled off a mild upset in the opening round by withstanding Clemson's relentless pressure and was hoping to make it two in a row against the bigger Sooners. The 10th-seeded Wolverines overcame foul trouble in the first half to keep it close and cut a 13-point lead to three with just over 6 minutes left, but just couldn't find a way to stop Griffin.

The Associated Press

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT