OU Basketball: Oklahoma Ends Losing Streak With Massive Win at Texas

One skid is finally over. Now can Oklahoma end another one?

The Sooners beat Texas 76-72 on Saturday night at Moody Center in Austin, wrapping up their inaugural regular season in the Southeastern Conference with a potentially massive victory that could have lasting implications on the future of the program.

Oklahoma ended four years of torment against their Red River Rival, an eight-game losing streak that even preceded coach Porter Moser’s inaugural season in 2021-22. For Moser’s part, he had been 0-7 against the Longhorns.

Oklahoma won its second straight game and improved to 19-12 overall and 6-12 in SEC play. Texas fell to 17-14 and 6-12.

Here are three takeaways from Saturday’s win. 

Fantastic Finish

Oklahoma, leading the SEC in free throw shooting coming in with a .798 percentage — by far a school record for the Sooners — won the game with clutch free throws in the closing seconds. 

Just barely.

The Sooners made their first 15 free throws of the second half before Duke Miles missed two — two chances to clinch the win — with 2.2 seconds remaining and a 75-72 lead.

Texas’ long inbounds pass was intercepted by Brycen Goodine to seal it.

The Sooners finished 22-of-28 from the free throw line.

After Texas took just its second lead of the second half, two free throws by Jeremiah Fears put the Sooners back up 67-66, and Miles’ pull-up jumper and free throw gave OU a 70-66 lead.

Goodine then nailed a 3 from the left baseline, giving the Sooners their biggest lead at 73-67.

But after Texas’ fifth blocked shot of the night — Kaden Shedrick swatted Jalon Moore’s layup — Jordan Pope wiggled his way through traffic for an acrobatic layup that cut it to 73-69 with 52 seconds to play.

OU’s next offensive possession was almost an air ball 3 by Miles, but Trey Johnson’s driving layup bounced around the rim and out, and Texas retained possession following a replay review.

Texas missed again and Miles rebounded under the basket as it appeared OU would win. 

With nine minutes to play, the Sooners matched their biggest lead so far — just five points — on a 3 by Kobe Elvis. Elvis extended it again to 63-58 with a jump shot at the 7:49 mark, but a 3 by UT’s Arthur Kaluma cut it to 63-62 with six minutes to go.

OU then went 3 1/2 minutes without a field goal, including two missed layups by Fears, who shot 2-of-14 from the floor.

Jordan Pope’s layup off a baseline drive and no-look pass from Johnson gave Texas its first lead since 39-37 on the first possession of the second half.

Luke Northweather, filling in for fallen big man Sam Godwin, tied his career high with 10 points. 

Goodine led OU with 14 points, while Fears hit 9-of-10 free throws and scored 13. Miles had 11, and Northweather, Glenn Taylor and Moore each scored 10.

Johnson, the SEC’s leading scorer at more than 20 points per game, was 0-for-14 from the field. Pope led Texas with 21 points.

The game featured 12 ties and 13 lead changes.

Toe to Toe

After beating Missouri on Wednesday, Moser described games — and “life” — as a tug-o-war, and that definition held true for the first half on Saturday.

It was a back-and-forth slugfest, with nine lead changes and seven ties. Texas’  largest lead was just six points, and OU’s was four.

Taylor was 4-of-4 from the field, including two 3s and a thunderous dunk, to lead the Sooners with 10 points. Pope was 4-of-5 with three 3s and led the Horns with 12 points. Pope scored 27 the last time these teams played.

Just as conspicuous as who scored was who didn’t: Moore, OU’s leading scorer, didn’t have a field goal until the 1:29 mark of the first half and had just four points at halftime. 

Fears, OU’s star freshman, had three points at halftime and was 0-for-5 from the floor.

Johnson had five points at half — all from the free throw line — and was 0-for-6 from the field. 

OU had a chance to break a 37-37 tie at halftime when Northweather drew a foul boxing out on Texas’ final possession, but missed his free throw.

The 107th meeting between OU and Texas goes to the Sooners, who now own a 58-49 series lead. 

Earlier this year, the Sooners dropped a 77-73 loss to Texas in Norman back on Jan. 15, when the Horns raced out to a 53-30 lead early in the second half. The Sooners came nearly all the way back with a 23-3 run as senior Jalon Moore scored 26 of his career-high 29 points in the second half, including a stretch of 19 of his team’s 22 points. 

March Madness is Here

We won’t officially know Oklahoma’s NCAA Tournament fate until next Sunday. But before tipoff in Austin, the Sooners learned their immediate future is already set at next week’s SEC Tournament in Nashville.

OU is the No. 14 seed and will play No. 11 Georgia on Wednesday night. Tipoff is expected to happen around 8:30. The game will be televised by SEC Network.

OU lost 72-62 at Georgia on Jan. 11.

An Oklahoma win advances the Sooners to a Thursday night game against 6-seed Kentucky. That game also would likely tip off around 8:30 on SEC Network.

If the Sooners want to break their three-year NCAA Tournament drought under Moser, they may need to do some work in Nashville.

Beating Texas enhances OU’s sketchy postseason resume, but only slightly. The Longhorns came in with a NET ranking of 40 (OU was 50), and the Sooners are now 6-10 against Quad 1 opponents.

OU entered Saturday’s action as ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi’s “First Team Out,” but by midday had climbed to “Last Team In.”

Saturday’s outcome will obviously have an impact on that.