Nov. 16—The first three minutes of Tuesday’s game were a sign of things to come for Oklahoma.

On the game’s opening possession, Grant Sherfield found Jacob Groves for a wide open corner 3. The next trip down, Tanner Groves found CJ Noland for another triple. Sherfield and Noland both exchanged 3-pointers on the next two possessions.

That made it four made 3-pointers on the Sooners’ opening four possessions, as they took an early nine-point lead over UNC Wilmington.

Things didn’t slow down much for the Sooners the rest of the way, using their outside shooting to propel them to a 74-53 win at Lloyd Noble Center.

With the win, the Sooners improve to 2-1 on the season.

Here’s three takeaways from their win over the Seahawks: 1. Ball movement, passing leads to hot shooting for Sooners 3-point shooting was an issue in their first two games, combining to shoot 8-of-32 (25 percent).

That wasn’t a problem against Wilmington.

The Sooners made 10-of-23 attempts from beyond the arc, as they made more 3s than they did in their first two games. They finished the game shooting 53 percent from the field.

It was their passing that helped create open shots. They assisted on 19 of their 26 made baskets, while turning it over just 12 times.

The passing was a team effort. Sherfield finished with a team-high six assists, while freshman Milos Uzan recorded five. Eight different Sooners recorded at least one assist.

It was a positive sign for the Sooners, who recorded 16 assists to 34 turnovers in their first two games.

“It’s just been our complete emphasis since the opening game,” OU coach Porter Moser said. “Spacing and ball movement have been such a big part of what I believe in and how we try to play.

“We just hadn’t been shooting it well... We were settling for okay shots [the first two games], and I thought tonight we didn’t settle. We just made that extra pass. And what happens when everyone plays like that, you know [the ball’s] coming back to you. That’s contagious. When you don’t play like that, that’s contagious.”

2. Joe Bamisile provides a spark The first two games didn’t go as planned for the transfer guard. Bamisile shot 8-of-18 from the floor and 4-of-11 from the 3-point line to open the season.

Against Wilmington, he proved to be a catalyst off the bench. His 15 points tied with Sherfield for the team lead, shooting 5-of-8 from the field while knocking down three triples. 12 of his points came in the first half to help the Sooners take a 16-point halftime lead.

“[It’s] a little relieving, to be honest,” Bamisile said. “It was tough those first couple of games. But you have to stay confident and stay and put in the work.”

It was a much-needed game for Bamisile, and Moser said the Sooners are going to continue to need his scoring off the bench.

“That’s why Joe’s here. He can really score,” Moser said. “Sometimes scorers want to score so much, [but] he’s got to come in and start letting it come to him. I thought the guys got him some good shots.”

3. C.J. Noland finds his rhythm Noland, who came off the bench last season, was thrust into a starting role to begin the season. But the sophomore got off to a slow start, making just 6-of-17 attempts to begin the year.

So it was a positive sign when he made back-to-back triples to start the game.

He finished with 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting, adding two rebounds and an assist.

“It was great,” Noland said. “We have a good offense. A lot of us take the [same] shots we took today. Like the doctor said, they were ordered to go in today. It felt great to finally get those 3s in and show we could shoot the 3 as a team.”