Oklahoma Basketball: Sooners Hold Off Horns 70-66 to Snap Losing String
By Chip Rouse
For a while, the ending of Tuesday night’s Oklahoma basketball rivalry game with Texas appeared strikingly similar to the earlier game between these two young teams played in Austin.
In the earlier Red River basketball showdown this season, played south of the Red River, the Longhorns came back from five points down with under a minute to go and stole the game from the Sooners on a last-second desperation three-point shot by Texas freshman Andrew Jones.
On Valentine’s Day at the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, the Sooners were up by eight points with just over a minute to go, but saw Texas score five unanswered points in just 26 seconds to pull within three points at 67-64.
Khaddem Lattin made two free throws to put Oklahoma up by five, 69-64. That was followed by a quick layup by Longhorn scoring leader Jarrett Allen, cutting the Sooner advantage back to three. With 10 seconds remaining, however, OU’s Jordan Shepherd, who made two clutch three-point shots in the second half, the latter of which put Oklahoma in the lead for good with under five minutes remaining in the game, made one of two from the free-throw line to seal the deal for OU and end a seven-game Sooner losing streak.
The 70-66 victory evened the season series with the hated Longhorns and earned Oklahoma its third Big 12 win and ninth win on the season to go along with 16 losses.
This was Oklahoma’s sixth game without senior leader and leading scorer Jordan Woodard in the lineup. Woodard suffered a season-ending knee injury last Saturday at Iowa State. Before Tuesday night’s game with Texas, the Sooners had lost all five games this season in which Woodard was not available.
The unsung star of the game for the Sooners was sophomore Jamuni McNeace who enjoyed the first double-double in his career with 14 points and the same number of rebounds.
Freshman teammate Kameron McGusty had 11 points, his 13th consecutive game in double figures. Rashard Odomes added 11 more.
Oklahoma scored 70 points for the first time in six games. The last time they scored more than 70 in a game was Jan. 23 at Texas in an 84-83 loss.
Texas dominated the Sooners in the paint, scoring 38 of its 66 points. This game, though, was decided at the free-throw line. Oklahoma went 22 of 31 from the charity stripe (71 percent), but the Longhorns struggled in the few times they shot free throws. Allen made just one of eight free throws and as a team Texas shot a miserable 41 percent from the free-throw line.
Both teams had the same number of shot attempts (59), but Texas made six more field goals (28) than the Sooners (22) and shot 48 percent from the field to Oklahoma’s 37 percent.
The Sooners also had a major advantage in bench scoring. Led by McNeace’s 14 points, Oklahoma reserves contributed half of the Sooners 70-point total.
This was the Longhorns’ 12th consecutive loss away from the Frank Erwin Center in Austin. All of their wins this season have come at home. The loss to the Sooners dropped Texas to 10-16 on the season and 4-9 in the Big 12. The Horns remain a game ahead of OU in the league standings.
Lon Kruger is now 7-5 against Texas as Oklahoma’s head coach, but more importantly, he is one win shy of 600 career wins as a head coach.