Ninth-ranked Oklahoma got off to a hot start on Thursday night against Texas, but the Sooners couldn't seem to get out of their own way after the opening quarter, and it ended up costing them in an 80-73 home loss to the No. 5 Longhorns.
The Sooners had Texas on its heels early in the 2 1/2 hour contest that featured a combined 54 turnovers and 45 foul calls, but were unable to keep the pedal down because of all the miscues on the offensive end.
Oklahoma led by as many as a dozen points in the first 10 minutes, but the No. 5 Longhorns closed out the second quarter on a 21-7 run to take a one-point lead, 40-39, into the locker room at halftime.
OU edged back in front 61-60 after three quarters, but Texas controlled the final quarter, outscoring the error-prone Sooners 20-13 to close out the seven-point win.
The leading scorers for both teams -- Raegan Beers of Oklahoma and Madison Booker of Texas -- battled foul trouble from the early going, each playing just about 4:30 in the first half. Neither fouled out, but the scoring production of both was far below their season averages.
Beers, who has averaged close to 18 points a game, finished the game with 11 points.
The largest crowd of the season (over 8,000) was on hand for the first match-up of top-10 teams at the Lloyd Noble Center since the 2008-09 season. Also in attendance was former Sooner star Danielle Robinson, who was on that team, and her head coach, Sherri Coale.
The road doesn't get any easier for the OU women, who will visit No. 15 Tennessee for a game on Sunday.
Here are three observations from the loss.
1. Sooners jumped on Longhorns early but couldn't sustain it
Oklahoma shot 50% in the opening quarter and led 23-17 at the end of the period and stretched that advantage to 32-20 1:30 into the second quarter.
But the Sooners struggled with their scoring leader on the bench most of the first half with foul trouble, and by halftime, Texas had made up the difference and OU was never really able to get into offensive rhythm after that despite having a major advantage in rebounding (44-28) and a 21-11 margin in offensive rebounding.
2. Oklahoma committed more turnovers than made field goals
The Sooners committed 27 turnovers in the game, two more than the number of made field goals.
The 27 turnovers led to 28 Texas points and tied a season high. The OU women also had 27 turnovers in a win at Louisville in early December. The Sooners turned the ball over eight times in both the third and fourth quarters, mostly on errant passes.
3. Sooners hit a season low in 3-point shooting
Oklahoma came into the game averaging nine 3-pointers per game and ranked 19th in the nation in that category.
The Sooners made just two of 16 against Texas, a season-low percentage of 12.5%. Payton Verhulst, who averages close to 40% from behind the 3-point line, was just 1-for-11 from long range in the game.