Oklahoma basketball: Sooners come up just short against No. 6 Texas
By Chip Rouse
The men’s Oklahoma basketball team battled its No. 6-ranked Red River rivals toe to toe but came up just short of what might have been a big New Year’s Eve upset win and celebration, falling 70-69 at home to Texas.
The two teams were close in most every statistical category, including the scoreboard, as the Longhorns escaped with a fourth consecutive victory over Oklahoma.
The Sooners went on a 9-4 run in the final four minutes of the first half and took a 35-31 advantage into the locker room at the half. OU’s Grant Sherfield scored 18 of his game-high 22 points in the opening 20 minutes to spark Oklahoma.
Oklahoma maintained the lead for the first seven minutes of the second half before a two-point bucket by Christian Bishop of Texas knotted the score at 44 with 13:08 to go in the game. Neither team scored for nearly the next three minutes.
A layup by Texas’ Timmy Allen at the 10:17 mark gave the Longhorns the lead, 46-44, their first since there was 3:45 to go in the first half.
Over the final 10 minutes of the game, there were five ties and four lead changes with neither team holding more than a four-point advantage.
Sherfield made a two-point jumper to tie the score at 62, but Texas responded on a two-pointer by Marcus Carr to put the Longhorns up 64-62 and they never trailed from there. A couple of free throws by Carr made it 70-66 and sealed the win with :03 left on the clock. Jacob Groves launched a three-point shot that went down for the Sooners at the buzzer, making the final score 70-69.
In addition to Sherfield’s 22 points, Jacob Groves contributed 17 for the Sooners and Jalen Hill had 14. Carr and Allen led the scoring for Texas, each with 13 points.
It will go down as a fourth loss in 13 games for Porter Moser’s Sooners, but they should feel good about how they played against one of the country’s best teams to this point in the season, even if it resulted in a losing effort.
Oklahoma will host Iowa State at Lloyd Noble Center on Wednesday night. The Cyclones (10-2) won their Big 12 opener, knocking off No. 12 Baylor 77-62 on Saturday.