Oklahoma basketball: Three-pointers from Sooners’ upset of No. 5 Texas

Oklahoma basketball outlasted a depleted Texas Longhorn team on Tuesday and escaped with an 80-79 win and, importantly, a second-straight victory over a top-10 team.

The Sooners had difficulty getting the ball in the basket both early and late, but in between they were road warriors and in full control of the game.

Texas, ranked No. 5 in the country entering the game, got off to its customary fast start, despite missing three key players and a head coach because of COVID-19 protocols. The Longhorns jumped out in front 14-6 over the first four minutes as the Sooners made just 3 of 15 shots.

Returning to the floor after the first media timeout, however, Oklahoma went on a 13-0 run in a little over two-minutes time to take a 19-14 lead. OU never trailed thereafter, although another four-minute spell without a field goal late in the game allowed Texas to rally from 11 down to draw within a single point twice in the final minute of play.

Sooner junior guard Elijah Harkless intercepted a long Texas pass after a missed Oklahoma free throw as time ran out to preserve the win for the Sooners

Austin Reaves scored a game-high 23 points to lead the Sooners. Three other OU players also scored in double figures.

The loss was Texas’ third of the season. All three Longhorn losses were to ranked teams and by a combined seven points. Among the players missing for Texas on Tuesday night were junior starting guard Courtney Ramey, the team’s second leading scorer (13.9 points per game), and 6-foot, 10-inch starting center Jericho Sims (7.8 points and  6.4 rebounds per game).

The Sooners (10-4, 6-3) return home to face another top-10 team in No. 9 Alabama on Saturday. The game is part of the Big12/SEC Challenge.

A great Sooner win is tempered by a Texas team missing 3 key players

A win is a win, but the fact that Texas was missing three players, including two starters, plus head coach Shaka Smart, all because of COVID issues, had to play in OU’s favor and the ability to pull off an upset of the country’s No. 5-ranked team on the road. The Sooners’ 20 points in the paint and 13 second-chance points probably would have been different had the Longhorns had 6-foot, 10-inch rim protector Jericho Sims available.

Without starters Courtney Ramey and Sims, Texas was missing 21 points of its average scoring production.

The Longhorn depth was seriously tested in the game. The Horns committed 29 personal fouls and had three starters foul out, including Kai Jones, who had a team-high 15 points, and Matt Coleman with 13 points.

Poor free-throw shooting made this game closer than score indicates

Oklahoma came into this game as the best free-throw-shooting team in the Big 12. And with Texas committing 29 fouls, the Sooners were able to make plenty of trips to the foul line. Unfortunately the Sooners were successful on just 21 of 34 free-throw attempts (61.7 percent), far below their season average, which is almost 14 percent higher.

The fact that OU missed 13 foul shots made this game much closer than it would have been otherwise.

OU has three wins over top-10 teams, with another opportunity coming Saturday

Oklahoma has played five games in the month of January against teams ranked in the nation’s top 10 and come away with wins in three of them. In another, the Sooners lost by just four points on the road at then-No. 3 Kansas.

The Sooners will face yet another team ranked in the top 10 when they host No. 9 Alabama out of the SEC on Saturday. And it doesn’t stop there. On Monday, Oklahoma is back on the road at No. 10 Texas Tech.

In the latest Bracketology projections, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has the Sooners as a No. 7 seed in the this season’s NCAA Basketball Tournament. That’s up from a No. 11 seed just two weeks ago.