B. Griffin's 33 Ignite Sooners

Oklahoma 73, Michigan 63

KANSAS CITY, Mo., March 21 -- Early in the second half of Saturday's second-round NCAA tournament game at Sprint Center, Oklahoma's Blake Griffin tossed in a short hook shot over Michigan reserve Zack Gibson and shook his head back and forth on his way back downcourt.

Michigan, a team composed of skilled players and capable three-point shooters, had no answer for Griffin, and Griffin knew it. Saturday's performance illustrated just another example why Griffin is college basketball's most indomitable force this season and it offered a fitting image: Griffin flexing his muscles after a resounding dunk.

"This was so much fun," Griffin said.

Scoring eight points during a 12-2 run to open the second half, Griffin enabled the second-seeded Sooners to ultimately pull away in a 73-63 victory over the 10th-seeded Wolverines in the South Region. Griffin finished with 33 points and 17 rebounds, and he left the game to a standing ovation from his fans in the game's final seconds.

Oklahoma, which reached the round of 16 for the first time since 2003, advanced to play the winner of Sunday's Arizona State-Syracuse game in Memphis on Friday.

Griffin, who led the Big 12 in scoring and the nation in rebounding, has been slowed by little this season despite being elbowed by a Rice player, concussed against Texas and flipped head-over-heels by a Morgan State player in Thursday's first-round game.

Griffin sat in his team's locker room after Saturday's game with blood speckled on his shorts.

"It might be a little bit more than normal," he said.

The sequence that will stick with fans occurred midway through the second half, when Griffin received an outlet pass, took one dribble and exploded to the basket for a thunderous right-handed dunk that left Michigan freshman Zack Novak sprawled on the court.

"I take a lot of frustration out when I dunk," Griffin said. "It felt good, but the whole game felt good."

Throughout the game, the Sooners made a concerted effort to exploit their considerable size advantage. Four Michigan starters stood 6 feet 5 or shorter. Three Oklahoma starters stood 6-6 or taller.

In the second half, Michigan's C.J. Lee, a 6-foot guard assigned to help on double-teams, was caught guarding Griffin alone on one possession and could only wrap his arms around him to foul the sophomore as soon as the 6-10, 251-pound player caught the ball.

"Well, it was not fun," Lee said of trying to slow Griffin. "We tried to take the ball out of his hands or force him into a charge."

In his first two NCAA tournament games this season, Griffin has scored 61 points and grabbed 30 rebounds.

After squandering an opportunity to get a No. 1 seed, losing four of six games before the NCAA tournament, the Sooners advanced to the tournament's second weekend after running away from the Wolverines in the second half.

"It was kind of like we were in practice and playing pickup," Griffin said.