Similar to last season, Oklahoma basketball is finding things a struggle in the Big 12, losing for a second straight game, this time to archrival Texas in a back-and-forth battle to the very end.
The 20th-ranked Sooners (13-5, 2-4) in all likelihood played themselves out of the top 25, falling 75-72 to unranked Texas on Saturday in Austin.
For the second straight game, the OU defense, ranked second in the Big 12, failed to get stops when it counted the most, as Texas shot 45.5 percent for the game and defeated the Sooners for the third consecutive time.
The last time OU defeated Texas in Austin was in 2015. The last three seasons, the Sooners have lost on the road at Texas by a combined nine points.
Four Texas starters scored in double figures, led by a game-high 23-points from senior Kerwin Roach II, and outlasted Oklahoma down the stretch to even the Longhorns’ Big 12 record at 3-3 and end a three-game losing skid.
In addition to Roach, freshman Jaxson Hayes and Matt Coleman III added 15 points each and Dylan Osetkowski delivered a double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds.
The Sooners were led by senior Christian James, who scored a team-high 20 points, including three of four from three-point range. Senior Rashard Odomes and freshman Jamal Bieniemy contributed 11 apiece in a losing effort.
On a positive note, Oklahoma committed a season-low six turnovers, but the Sooners couldn’t capitalize on opportunities in the closing minutes to come out on top. One of those six turnovers was by James with under a minute to go and the Longhorns up by a single point at 70-69. James bounced the ball off his foot and out of bounds. On the ensuing possession, Jason Febres drained a three-point shot to put Texas up by four points, 73-69.
Bieniemy answered at the other end for the Sooners to make it a one-point game. But that was as close as the Sooners would come, as Bieniemy, Aaron Calixte and Kristian Doolittle missed three-point attempts in the final 10 seconds.
After beginning the season 11-1, Oklahoma has now lost four of its last six games, with another difficult road test coming up on Wednesday at Oklahoma State. OU defeated the Cowboys in round one of Bedlam, 74-64, a couple of weeks ago in Norman.