OU guard Je’lon Hornbeak and BU center Isaiah Austin have a history of competition

Oklahoma's Je'lon Hornbeak looks to pass the ball as A&M's Alex Caruso defends during the All-College Classic between the University of Oklahoma and Texas A&M at the Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City, Saturday,Dec. 15, 2012. Photo by Sarah Phipps, The Oklahoman

Oklahoma guard Je’lon Hornbeak will take on his former Grace Academy teammate, current Baylor center Isaiah Austin, tonight. The two have a history of playing against each other – outside of the one-on-one competition I wrote about today. During their freshman year, when the two played at rival Dallas high schools, Austin’s team won the first two meetings, but Hornbeaks’ team won the third.

Here’s how they break down:

First meeting: Austin’s high school team wins by three, according to Hornbeak.
Second meeting: Hornbeak is suspended from the game. Austin’s team wins again. Hornbeak blames it on him being suspended.
Third meeting: Hornbeak’s team wins “by something between 10 and 25, but that was four years ago and I can’t remember the exact score.” The victory is in the conference playoffs. Hornbeak’s team made it to the final four that year.

Here’s more from Hornbeak about the Kansas loss, what Oklahoma coach Lon Kruger expects from the Sooners now and becoming friends with Isaiah Austin:

I know it’s  a 13-point loss but there’s still a chance that we could have won that game. We had a few breakdowns defensively and that led to a few easy points, second chance points. Cutting small things down like that could have actually put us back into the game. The defense was good, I’ll give them that. They didn’t play their best game and we didn’t play our best game .. we just gotta keep competing. That’s the big thing. … There were times when they were down 14, 15, 16 and we cut it back down to eight and it’s like we couldn’t get over that eight  hump. That’s what really hurt us. We got down to eight, have a turnover and they put it pushed it back up to 10.