The Oklahoma Sooners needed the entire 40 minutes to get their second SEC win of the season.
The Sooners beat the Arkansas Razorbacks 65-62 on Saturday night in Fayetteville. After starting SEC play 0-4, OU has now won back-to-back conference games and bolstered its record to 15-4.
The Razorbacks tied this one up 62-62 with 2:13 left. Nearly a minute later, Jalon Moore was fouled on a shot and made only one of two shot attempts, but it was ultimately enough to give his team a big enough lead to win.
Chaos ensued the next minute between missed shots and fouls before Arkansas called a timeout with 24 seconds left, then again with 12 seconds left. Johnell Davis missed a layup, though, that Duke Miles rebounded and got out to Moore.
Moore exclamated the win with a dunk on the other end to finalize the score.
defense, dunk, dub 💥 pic.twitter.com/eHDpNLdpED
— Oklahoma Basketball (@OU_MBBall) January 26, 2025
It was again the duo of Moore and Jeremiah Fears that powered the Sooners to another win. Fears led the Sooners with 16 points, while Moore scored another 13 and also pulled in six rebounds. Brycen Goodine also added nine points thanks to a trio of 3-pointers.
This was the first time since the Sooners finished nonconference play undefeated that they put together back-to-back wins. This was also OU's weakest stretch since then, though, against two of the SEC's worst teams this season in Arkansas and South Carolina. Both are at the bottom of the standings after Saturday night.
Despite Arkansas being disappointing so far, it will still go down as a Quad 1 win for the Sooners, which is huge for a team on the bubble of making the NCAA Tournament. A loss Saturday night likely would have popped OU's bubble, at least for now.
More opportunity is ahead for the Sooners. OU will head to No. 13 Texas A&M on Tuesday night. The Aggies beat OU in Norman earlier this month as the Sooners squandered an 18-point lead in the second half.
The motto of OU's new conference is that it just means more, but that's actually true for the Sooners right now during SEC play. Each SEC win the Sooners tally will trump any of those 13 wins at the beginning of the season.
A victory over Texas A&M for three straight conference wins would get the Sooners off the bubble and comfortably in the field of 68 unless another losing streak follows.