Gut-punch week for OU ends with 85-84 loss to Tech

OU basketball has now done the one thing you cannot do. A two-game homestand, two incredible crowds and two disappointing Big 12 losses.

Everyone was able to flush what happened vs. Texas, which might make what happened against Texas Tech even worse.

The Sooners did respond, repeatedly. And yet, it still wasn’t enough in a gut-wrenching 85-84 loss to the No. 20-ranked Red Raiders on Saturday afternoon.

Milos Uzan had a chance to tie it in the final seconds, but his running jumped rimmed off. Tech made two free throws for an 85-81 advantage, and Rivaldo Soares hit a 3-pointer as time expired. The gut-punch had already gone down after Uzan’s miss.

“We actually talk about that in advance,” head coach Porter Moser said. “If it was in attack mode, down two, kind of the time and score, based on what we want—knowing with Texas Tech, how good on defense they are, you call a timeout and they can completely set their defense. They can get the right matchups.

“So, it’s a feel. I didn’t want them to set up; we were in attack mode. We were in double bonus. We went downhill with Los. I thought Los was playing good. We had a little attack, little hook, fake hook—different stuff we do, but he missed the shot.”

OU led 34-33 at halftime and opened up a 68-59 lead with under eight minutes left. But the Sooners didn’t have it defensively in the second half. Tech shot 72 percent from the floor in the final 20 minutes. And the Red Raiders were money from the free throw line at 16-for-19.

“It’s our issue with this team,” Moser said. “We got certain—some of us, we take the foot off the gas defensively.”

Everything points toward Saturday being a terrific Big 12 basketball game between two very good teams. But that’s little consolation for OU, now dropping back-to-back home games and falling to 15-5 overall and 3-4 in the Big 12.

Walking wounded, hurting a bit in the locker room, and now Kansas State. The Wildcats themselves are coming off an 0-2 week. Manhattan is a must-win Tuesday for two clubs reeling.

Game 20 Takeaways

*The Moser message afterward is about everything matters. When you lose a tight game by one point, every single little thing matters. Moser mentioned he could think of like 12 little things that add up to one big thing, the loss.

Strangely enough, it was the free throw shooting that really hurt OU. The Sooners were only 15-for-24 from the line.

“Everything matters, man. Everything matters,” Moser said. “I thought offensively, you told me we’d have scored 85, 84 points. I thought we did some really good things, man. Some really good things offensively time and time again against an elite defensive team. And our second half defense got us.

“And we left nine free throws on the table. That’s the first time I’ll probably say that this year. It’s the first time I’ll say, man, we didn’t, our free throw shooting got us. That’s literally the first time all year I’ve said that we’ve really struggled and we left nine. In a one-point game, we left nine on the table. So those are some of the things.”

*Point guard Javian McCollum has to find the answers. Another game where he is blanked in the second half. After a nine-point outing Tuesday, McCollum had seven points on just 2-for-11 shooting.

OU needs more from him.

“I thought he did some good things better than he did against Texas,” Moser said. “But, got a lot of confidence in him. He’s gonna continue to get better. I know he struggled tonight, two of 11. But he’s a huge part of what we’re doing. He was better with some of the physicality, the shots just didn’t go in. He was better with the physicality tonight.”

*The good? Give it up to Sam Godwin and Rivaldo Soares. Godwin has had some rough outings and responded with 13 points and eight rebounds. Soares acted like the veteran he is with 19 points and 10 rebounds. At times, Soares can appear as the best OU player on the court.

Otega Oweh also had 14 points and six rebounds. Uzan pitched in with 13 points, five assists and zero turnovers.