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Can Jalon Moore rally the OU troops?

Bob Przybyloby:Bob Przybylo•about 12 hours•

BPrzybylo

Jalon Moore17
OU senior Jalon Moore. (Bryan Terry - Imagn Images)

You might have not liked all the answers, but OU senior Jalon Moore sat there and answered every last question. Pure honesty.

If you think you’re upset about the 0-4 start for OU in SEC play, try being Moore. The Sooners star tried to put the team on his back in a 77-73 loss against Texas on Wednesday.

Almost succeeded, too. OU trailed 53-30, and then went on a 23-3 run to cut the margin to 56-53. Moore? He scored 19 of those 23 points.

“Once we got more aggressive and actually started to play our game, we started to get stops and that got us flowing,” Moore said. “We came out lackadaisical. We can’t do that. Learning experience, and we’re going to get better because of it.”

OU fans were stunned at the term lackadaisical. This is OU-Texas. What? You simply cannot comprehend a flat performance. The Sooners were, though. They went to a next level (finally) in the final 15 minutes but ran out of time.

Lloyd Noble Center was as packed as you can expect for a 9 p.m. game against the Longhorns. Now the focus shifts to South Carolina. Will the OU faithful return? The Gamecocks (10-7 overall, 0-4) haven’t played OU since the 1991-92 season.

OU needs a win badly, obviously. And Moore showed the heart and desire in that second half. With each basket made, his intensity rose.

Add it all up? Moore scored 26 points, shooting a perfect 8 for 8 from the field, including three 3-pointers. He was also 7-for-7 from the free throw line.

Moore had 29 points, a career high, and team-high eight rebounds.

“He was being great at who Jalon Moore is,” head coach Porter Moser said. “But for him, I really felt it was the contagiousness of the toughness factor.  And then I thought he was, him and Fears went with it. And I just thought when we went to a lineup of some toughness, I thought that sparked a lot.

“What a half Jalon had, and just hate to waste that performance, but he was a leader down the stretch in terms of just believing we could win in huddles. He was very vocal.”

This has to carry forward. Moore is expected to be the alpha of this team. But there are times when he has been almost too patient for his own good.

Wednesday night in the second half was a reminder of who Moore is, and who Moore is going to need to be the rest of the way. To get everything back on track after the 13-0 start, Moore needs to anchor the charge.

Sounds like, after all, he’s up and ready for the task.

OU and the Gamecocks set for a 3 p.m. tip Saturday on ESPNU.

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