The way the game started out for Oklahoma on Wednesday night at Mississippi State, you could tell almost from the jump this wasn't the same Sooner team that had basically bullied its way to five straight victories, including an SEC-opening win over Ole Miss just five days prior.
The Sooners were the team that got pushed around on Wednesday. Mississippi State took control of a close game in the second half for a 72-53 win, handing the OU men their fourth loss of the season and evening the Sooners' conference record at 1-1.
Oklahoma suffers second-worst loss of the season
The 19-point loss was Oklahoma's second-worst of the season after OU's 83-68 loss to Gonzaga in the second game of the season and followed a five-game winning streak during which the Sooners' average victory margin was 25 points (92-67).
Oklahoma (12-4, 1-1) missed four of its first five shots against the Bulldogs (10-5, 2-0), which might not have seemed particularly concerning early but proved to be prophetic as the game progressed, especially in the Sooners' disastrous second half.
The game was tied 27-27 at halftime as defense prevailed and both teams produced mini scoring runs to weather six lead changes. Four minutes into the the second half, Oklahoma held a 38-35 advantage, but over the the next 6 1/2 minutes the game got away from the Sooners.
A 14-1 Mississippi State run put the Bulldogs up by 10 points, 49-39, with 9:36 remaining in the game. That was the knockout blow, with Mississippi State gradually stretching out the winning margin from there.
Four Sooners scored in double figures, led by 13 points each from Tae Davis and Xzayvier Brown. As a team, however, Oklahoma made just 17 field goals on 55 attempts, shooting a season-low 30.9%. The Sooners' 53 points was their lowest total of the season and 34 points below their season average.
Mississippi State outscored Oklahoma 45-26 in the second half. Entering the game, the Sooners had outscored 12 of their 14 opponents in the second half.
Oklahoma has just a few days to get over the ill effects of the ugly loss at Mississippi State. The Sooners remain on the road this weekend in the first of two game this season against Texas A&M, which is off to a 2-0 start in SEC play.
Here are three telling takeaways from a game that fell apart for the Sooners on multiple fronts:
OU's worst shooting performance of the season came at a bad time
The Sooners couldn't have picked a worse time -- on the road against a surging SEC opponent -- to come up with the poorest shooting performance of the season. Oklahoma made just 17 of 55 field-goal tries for a season-worst 30.9 shooting percentage. The Sooners were equally second rate from the perimeter. The conference's third-best 3-point shooting team made just 2 of 20 (15%) from beyond the arc against Mississippi State. Credit the Mississippi State defense for part of that inefficiency, but this was just one of those games by Oklahoma, a team that was averaging 87.3 points a game.
Moreover, because of the poor shooting night, the Sooners were out-rebounded by an 11-board margin, including 17 offensive rebounds by the Bulldogs that led to 19 points. OU also got virtually no production from its six bench players who entered the game. The deficit between the respective benches was 20-3 in favor of Mississippi State.
Turnovers turn against the typically ball-secure Sooners
Ball security and minimizing turnovers have been a hallmark of this Oklahoma team this season, unlike Sooner teams of the recent past. Oklahoma was averaging 9.2 turnovers per game, best in the SEC and ninth nationally. On Wednesday night, however, OU committed an uncharacteristically high 13 turnovers, leading to 14 Mississippi State points. Eight of those turnovers were committed in the fateful final 20 minutes.
Sooners allowed Mississippi State's best player to beat them
Oklahoma knew coming into the game with Mississippi State that it was going to have its hands full against Josh Hubbard, the SEC's leading scorer. He tied his career high with 38 points in the team's overtime win over Texas on Saturday. Hubbard pretty much had his way with the Sooners, who didn't seem to put up much resistance. He scored 14 of the Bulldogs' 27 first-half points and added 16 more in the second half to total 30.