The Oklahoma Sooners are in Orlando for the Thanksgiving holiday competing in the Old Spice Classic Basketball Tournament. They played UTEP on Thursday night and won, 68-61 to advance to the semi-final round to play an undefeated Gonzaga team on Friday.

Sooners head coach Lon Kruger after the win on Thanksgiving:

It was a great start. You’d like to start all ballgames like that, not only on the scoreboard, but the energy was good and the activity defensively was very good, and there were very few turnovers on the offense at the other end.

Romero Osby was the Sooners go-to guy against the Miners with 16 points and 10 rebounds.

The game against the Bulldogs will be a much tougher challenge for the Sooners to overcome. They are very well coached and a physically a threat. Especially with the return of  Kelly Olynyk back for the Bulldogs. The 7-foot Olynyk had 13 points in 24 foul-plagued minutes Thursday in his season debut after being out due to a violation of the student code of conduct. Some of their other stars, like Sam Dower, is averaging 11.5 points per game. Freshman Przemek Karnowski averaged a team-high 16.0 points before he was held scoreless on Thanksgiving day.

The winner will face either Davidson or West Virginia in the finals.