Oklahoma basketball: What stands out from Sooners’ resilient win at Texas Tech

For the first time in three Big 12 outings, men’s Oklahoma basketball managed to get on the right side of a game that was tightly contested to the very end — in fact two ends, with overtime required to finally settle things.

Down by two points with 23 seconds remaining, the Sooners were staring at the potential of yet another one-possession defeat and their third straight to open the 2022-23 Big 12 campaign. On this night, though, 350 driving miles away from home, Porter Moser’s Oklahoma squad was not about to concede.

True freshman Milos Uzan was fouled with 14 seconds to go and calmly sunk two free throws toe tie the score at 56-56. Jaylon Tyson missed a three-point shot and a mid-court heave by OU’s Jalen Hill missed the mark and sent to game to an extra five-minute session.

Tied at 60 midway through the overtime session, Oklahoma took the lead on a layup by Hill and pulled away after that for a 68-63 victory, its first in three Big 12 games.  It was the Sooners’ first win vs. Texas Tech in Lubbock since 2015, another overtime win, 79-75.

The Sooners held the Red Raiders, playing without two starters, below 40 percent shooting for the game, but had to withstand a 21-8 Texas Tech run over the final nine minutes of the game that wiped out a 13-point Oklahoma advantage.

It was a huge road win for the Sooners, especially after losing back-to-back Big 12 games at home to open the conference schedule. Moser and the Sooners won’t have much time to celebrate, however, with another road contest coming up on Tuesday at No. 3 Kansas, the reigning national champions.

That’s the way things are going to be in the Big 12 this season with nine conference teams ranked in the top-50 of the NET rankings and five in the top-20.

Here are three things that stand out the most from the Oklahoma win at Texas Tech:

• True freshman Milos Uzan has been making an increasing contribution since early December, and on Saturday night against Texas Tech he enjoyed his best outing of the season, scoring 18 points, two three-pointers in as many tries, three rebounds and two critical free throws to send the game to overtime.
• Two seasons ago (2020-21), De’Vion Harmon was the starting point guard of the Oklahoma Sooners. He transferred to Oregon after that season following the retirement of former OU head coach Lon Kruger. This season, Harmon is at Texas Tech and is averaging 12.4 points a game. He was the Red Raiders’ high scorer on Saturday against Oklahoma, logging 23 points, his highest scoring game of the season. Interestingly, none of the eight OU players who saw action against the Red Raiders was on the Sooner roster when Harmon played at OU.
• Time of possession in Saturday’s Oklahoma win heavily favored the Sooners, who possessed the ball over 11 minutes longer than Texas Tech (25:33 to 14:23).