Porter Moser: "(Kentucky's) got a Final Four team when they're healthy."

Kentucky undoubtedly got Oklahoma’s best effort in Norman. You could tell from the opening tip the Sooners wanted and needed that one, desperate to stay above that bubble line after jumping from the outside to the inside this past weekend, finally getting their heads above water after a disastrous SEC schedule following the promising 13-0 non-conference start. Win and they were almost certainly in.

Falling behind by as many as eight in the second half, OU fought back to not only retake the lead, but go up five with 9:40 to go — a 13-point swing in just under eight minutes.

Then Otega Oweh happened, the former Sooner scoring the final 18 points for the Wildcats to secure the 83-82 win. In that stretch, he tied it up on three separate occasions and forced four different lead changes before the game-winner. Both teams played well enough to win, but Kentucky — and Oweh, more specifically — was just a little better when it mattered most.

“Otega had a phenomenal game, he hit some really tough shots. We just couldn’t get a stop down the stretch. Both teams played their tails off in that game,” OU coach Porter Moser said. “… We battled our tails off against a high-level team in a high-level atmosphere. We have to channel that going into our next game. … We competed and believed. I hurt for them, that they fell one point short in this game.”

He was actually pleased with his team defensively against one the best offenses in college basketball, allowing just seven made 3-pointers — Oklahoma hit that mark in the second half alone — while also winning the rebounding battle.

“Defensively, we did some really, really good things. They’re a very hard team to guard on offense,” Moser continued. “… They’re such a high-powered offensive 3-point shooting team in transition. For the way they get out in transition and run, I thought we did some really good things.”

The difference, unfortunately, was the guy who played two years for Moser in Norman. Oweh signed with Oklahoma out of high school and became a double-figure scorer as a sophomore, breaking through as the four-star, top-100 recruit he was brought in to be for the Sooners.

Then he emerged as an All-SEC guard a year later — albeit for the competition at Kentucky, not under Moser. What can you say? Losing a good player and watching him beat you on a career day is a tough pill to swallow.

“You just have to tip your cap to Kentucky. I thought Kentucky and I thought Otega just made some huge plays down the stretch,” he said. “… He’s very good, very hard to stop one-on-one. Very powerful. He spun and bopped our guys back, he’s very, very good. I told him he’s having a phenomenal year and I’m not surprised. He has really worked.”

Oweh is the leading scorer on a team that, when healthy, is capable of making a real run in March. You got to see short glimpses of that in Norman on Wednesday.

“They’ve got a Final Four team when they’re healthy, I really feel that way,” Moser said. “With (Lamont) Butler and Jaxson Robinson, they’ve got a lot of weapons. When we look at it, I thought our guys really played hard. I don’t have any regrets about how hard our guys competed tonight.”