Porter Moser finally gets burnt-orange monkey off his back with 'bubblicious' win over Texas

Nearly four years of going winless against chief rival Texas came to a triumphant end for Porter Moser and his Oklahoma basketball team on Saturday. The big question now is: Will it be enough to override another four-year drought?

ESPN Bracketology guru Joe Lunardi, who everyone in college basketball seems to religiously follow this time of year, said Saturday that the winner of the Red River Rivalry would likely be in the field of 68 for the NCAA Tournament.

The Sooners did their part with a 76-72 win at Texas on Saturday night. Nothing is final, of course, until the NCAA Tournament selection committee makes it so Selection Sunday, but a number of experts -- and a couple of SEC head coaches as well -- believe Oklahoma has done enough to earn its way into March Madness after a four-year absence.

If the Sooners make it into the NCAA Tournament -- and presumably unranked Georgia, Vanderbilt and Arkansas will, as well -- as many as 13 of the 16 SEC teams would be going to the Big Dance, the largest number from one conference in NCAA Tournament history.

But getting back to the huge Oklahoma win on Saturday, who would have imagined a Sooner team that had lost eight consecutive games to Texas would be able to beat the Longhorns on Senior Night on their longtime rival's home court and do so without the services of starting forward Sam Godwin and with OU's two leading scorers going a combined 4 of 21 shooting?

Sometimes, results defy logic. Texas was a 5.5-point favorite coming into Saturday night's Red River Rivalry showdown, and the Longhorns were playing at home with the same at stake as the visiting Sooners. Aside from bragging rights, both teams were keenly aware that their NCAA Tournament hopes clearly were riding on the outcome.

The contest was tightly contested from the opening jump. There were 13 lead changes in the game and 12 ties, including a 37-37 deadlock after the first 20 minutes. Neither team led by more than six points the entire game.

Oklahoma took a five-point advantage, 61-56, with just under eight minutes remaining in the game, but as has happened so often this season, the Sooners lapsed into a five-minute drought without a field goal. They did manage four free throws over that span, but Texas took its first lead, 66-65, since the opening minute of the second half with 3:47 to go.

The Sooners responded with an 8-1 run to take a 73-67 advantage with just over two minutes remaining and held on from there. Jordan Pope, who led Texas with 21 points, hit a 3-pointer with six seconds to go to make it a one-score game, but that was as close as the Longhorns got.

Oklahoma finished the regular season with a record of 19-12 overall and 6-12 in the conference. The Sooners will now look ahead to the SEC Men's Basketball Tournament in Nashville, where they will face Georgia (20-11, 8-10) in the opening round on Wednesday.

Three telling observations as Oklahoma closed out the regular season, its first as a member of the SEC, with back-to-back wins:

1. Balanced scoring paves way to victory

Six Oklahoma players scored in double figures in the game, led by 14 points from Brycen Goodine. Jeremiah Fears and Jalon Moore, who averaged 16 points a piece coming into Saturday's game, scored 13 and 10, respectively, against Texas, but 15 of those points (15 of 16) came from free throws.

Duke Miles contributed 11 points, and reserves Luke Northweather and Glenn Taylor Jr. added 10 apiece. The last time OU had six players score in double figures was five years ago against Iowa State in 2020.

Moore didn't get his first field goal in the game on Saturday until the 1:29 mark in the first half. He had just four points in the first half. Fears, who scored a career-high 31 points in the Sooners' upset win over No. 15 Missouri earlier in the week, was 0-for-5 from the field and ended the first half with just three points.

2. Creating offense from defense

The Sooners scored 21 points off 11 Texas turnovers. By contrast, the Longhorns were able to covert only six points off 13 Oklahoma turnovers. OU also converted seven offensive rebounds into 15 points. That adds up to a total of 36 opportunistic points.

3. Sooner defense shuts down SEC's leading scorer

Texas freshman Tre Johnson leads the SEC averaging 20.2 points a game. He has 11 games this season with 20 or more points and three of at least 30 points. On Saturday night, however, Johnson scored just seven points, all coming from free throws, and was 0-for-14 from the field.

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