The men’s Oklahoma basketball season was officially pronounced dead at approximately 7:55 p.m. CT on Wednesday after suffering a fatal blow from TCU in the opening round of the Big 12 Postseason Championship.
The Sooners were on life support for most of the second half as the Horned Frogs scored virtually at will in close at the basket and shot 60 percent for the game, handing Oklahoma an 82-63 victory.
TCU had three players score 15 or more points, led by 6-foot, 11-inch junior forward Vlad Brodziansky with 20 points. Kenrich Williams put in 19 and Alex Robinson added 17, 14 of which came in the first half.
With the score tied at 29 with just under four minutes remaining in the first half, TCU went on difference-making 15-2 run to take a 13-point 44-31 advantage into halftime.
The Sooners cut into the TCU lead in the opening 10 minutes of the second half, narrowing the gap down to seven, but that was a close as they would get as the Horned Frogs put the hammer down and closed out the young OU squad 27-15 over the final 12 minutes of the game.
TCU outscored OU 38 to 24 in the paint, which was a big reversal from the game between these same two teams last Saturday. Oklahoma had 40 points in the paint on Saturday in defeating the Horned Frogs 73-68.
Khadeem Lattin had one of his best offensive games of the season, hitting seven of 10 field goal attempts to go along with four of six at the free-throw line. Lattin, the only one of the OU starters who played in the Big 12 Tournament a year ago, also pulled down nine rebounds.
Freshmen Kristian Doolitte and Kameron McGusty combined for 20 points for the Sooners, who didn’t play with nearly the same energy and composure they did last weekend in the regular-season finale against the Horned Frogs in Norman.
TCU made 33 of 55 field goals, 11 more than Oklahoma and also drained 8 of 16 from long range.
Oklahoma led for just two minutes in the game; TCU held the lead for 36:33.
The loss ends the Sooners’ season with an 11-20 record, the first time in program history the OU men have lost as many as 20 games in a season.
TCU advances to the quarterfinal round of the Big 12 Tournament at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo., where they will be matched up with top-ranked and No. 1 seed Kansas.