Oklahoma men's basketball coach Porter Moser thought Brycen Goodine was 'unbelievable' Wednesday night, yet it still wasn't enough to beat the No. 10 Texas A&M Aggies.
The No. 17 Sooners squandered a lead late and lost to Texas A&M 80-78 at Lloyd Noble Center. The loss dropped OU to 0-2 in SEC play after starting the season 13-0 through the nonconference slate.
Goodine came off the bench and was phenomenal while leading the Sooners with 34 points after having one of the best halves a college basketball player possibly could. But it ultimately didn't matter what Goodine did Wednesday night.
"It's tough to have a performance like that and lose. That's the honest answer," Moser said during the postgame press conference. "I thought he was unbelievable."
The Sooners led 39-30 at halftime. Even by that point, Goodine already had 21 points after draining six 3-pointers. He had scored just 15 total in the previous five games combined.
Goodine cooled off in the second half, but even as he came back down to earth, Jeremiah Fears started playing like a freshman phenom, scoring 11 of his 13 points in the second half.
But the Sooners kept turning the ball over and the Aggies kept taking advantage it, scoring 24 points off turnovers in the second half. And while Goodine just had one of the best halves in recent memory at Lloyd Noble Center, it was immediately outdone as Texas A&M's Zhuric Phelps put up 28 points to finish with 34, matching Goodine's total but having the support to get the win.
It was Phelps who made a 3 with 19 seconds left to give the Aggies the final 80-78 lead. All the Sooners could muster the next 19 seconds was an ugly heave from Duke Miles with two seconds left, during which he drew a foul and sent an Aggie to the line for a missed one-and-one.
While the Aggies' unexpected star made the game-winner, Goodine didn't the opportunity get a shot off in the final three minutes.
Goodine transferred from Fairfield during the offseason to make 3s for the Sooners, and he did just that and more Wednesday night. Fears even kept his streak alive of scoring double figures every game so far of his young career.
But as the Sooners turned the ball over, were out-rebounded and had poor shot selections in crunch time, it was ultimately the little things that wasted a massive performance.