Takeaways from No. 11 OU basketball's worst loss of season

OU men's basketball suffered its first home loss along with its worst loss of the season as unranked Texas handed the Sooners a 70-55 defeat at Lloyd Noble Center on Tuesday night.

Texas (14-5, 3-3) outscored the No. 11 Sooners (14-4-3-3) 43-27 in the second half and took advantage of a poor all-around performance by Oklahoma to post a 75-60 victory and the Longhorns' sixth straight over the Sooners.

The Red River rivalry matchup on Tuesday played out much the same as Oklahoma's road contest at Kansas a couple of weeks ago with the Sooners falling behind early only to come back, take a brief lead and make a game of it before halftime. The two teams went back and forth early in the second half before the Jayhawks seized control.

The big difference, of course, between the Kansas game and the one against Texas on Tuesday was the game was played in Norman in front of a packed arena filled with Sooner fans.

Eight minutes into the second half, the game was tied 52-52. Over the next eight minutes, the Oklahoma wasn't able to get defensive stops and Texas separated with a 15-4 run to open up a double-digit advantage that eventually grew to 16 points.

The Sooners shot just 38 percent in the second half and 39 percent for the game. Just two Sooners reached double figures. Georgia Tech transfer Jalon Moore led OU with 15 points; Otega Oweh contributed 10. Texas was led on offense by Max Abmas with 22 points and Dylan Disu with 19. The Longhorns shot 63 percent from three-point range in the second half, draining five of eight three balls.

At his press conference on Monday ahead of the Texas game, OU head coach Porter Moser talked about how great the student crowds have been supporting the Sooners. "Man did they come out for West Virginia," he said.

"I hope this (place) is packed to the roof (for the Texas game). The more the better."

- Porter Moser

The crowd turned out in force at the LNC as Moser had hoped. Unfortunately, the Sooners weren't able to reward them with performance worthy of a win.

Moser apologized to Sooner fans after the game for letting them down. "I'm disappointed," he said to reporters in the postgame press conference. "I'm disappointed because the fans were awesome."

"Obviously, we didn't play to our standard. It starts with me. I put that team out there today, and I thought that we were ready and we looked tired in the second half."

- Porter Moser after the Texas loss

Moser said he thought Texas played with great urgency, and the Longhorns' defensive pressure bothered the Sooners on offense. The OU head coach talks all the time about not letting your offense dictate your defense. "Tonight," he said, "I think our (poor) defense dictated our offense."

Moser and the Sooners have not beaten Texas in his three seasons in Norman. Their record isn't much better in Bedlam against Oklahoma State. The Sooners are just 1-4 against their in-state rival under Moser.

No. 11 Oklahoma is back in action at Lloyd Noble Center this weekend hosting Texas Tech.

"I apologize to Sooner Nation," Moser said after the game. "We didn't win, but we'll bounce back."

Four takeaways from OU's disappointing 6th straight loss to Texas

• The Sooners scored 14 points off of seven Texas turnovers in the first half, but just two points off of six Longhorn turnovers on the second half.

• Texas dominated the backboards at both ends of the court against the Sooners. OU had won the rebounding battle against four of the five Big 12 teams it had faced coming into the game with Texas. The Longhorns had 32 defensive rebounds to Oklahoma's 19, which is reflective of the Sooners' poor shooting performance. Texas had 40 total rebounds, including eight offensive rebounds.

• Texas had just one free throw in the first half but went to the line 17 times and made 14 of them in the second half.

• The 15-point loss was the Sooners worst of the season. OU's three previous losses (North Carolina, TCU and Kansas) were by 12, 9 and 12, respectively.