Cooper had a great effort today, helping Oklahoma Cty avoid disaster and beat Houston 120-117 in overtime. After the game, Cooper was thrilled to get the win but upset with his teammates' effort. "I don't know what they were thinking at the start. I guess they thought our reputation would get us the win, but it looked to me like the score was 0-0 at the beginning and we needed to put some points on the board to win. Whatever it was, I had to yell and scream for half the game before we got any sort of team effort going. I guess it was barely enough - any less and we wouldn't have gotten into overtime to begin with."

Houston coach Bob was impressed with Cooper, but disappointed that his chance slipped through his fingers. "We had our chances and didn't make the best of them," he said. "It's partly because of Cooper's play, and partly because of our own mistakes."

Oklahoma Cty was led by Cooper (11 points, 5 boards, 17 assists, 6 steals), Walston (27 points, 10 boards, 0 assists, a block), Golden (19 points, 6 boards, 0 assists). Houston was led by White (24 points, 9 boards, 2 assists, 2 blocks), Sims (20 points, 7 boards, 3 assists, a steal, 4 blocks), Lewis (20 points, 5 boards, 0 assists, 2 steals).

box score Oklahoma Cty roster Houston roster