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Otega Oweh breaks the hearts of OU basketball in a thriller, 83-82

Bob Przybyloby:Bob Przybylo•about 10 hours•

BPrzybylo

Kentucky G Otega Oweh vs Oklahoma's Jeremiah Fears, via Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images
Kentucky G Otega Oweh vs Oklahoma's Jeremiah Fears, via Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images

Everybody knew it was going to be one heck of an emotional night for OU basketball. But the question was whether that would be a good thing or a bad thing.

What unfolded was one of the better efforts and one of the best games of the SEC season. But what unfolded was another heartbreak for the Sooners.

Jeremiah Fears was blocked in the final seconds and Kentucky walked away with an 83-82 victory against the Sooners on Wednesday night.

It was the return of Otega Oweh to OU, after playing for the Sooners the last two seasons. After initial struggles, Oweh was simply dominant.

“You know, it’s just always good to come back home and play in front of the crowd,” Oweh said. “I had a lot of fam out there, so they came out. It was good. I’m just glad I got the dub back home.”

He punctuated it with a shot off the glass with 6.1 seconds left, scoring the final 18 points for the Wildcats. Oweh had a career high 28 points.

Everything was top-notch, a high-level college basketball game. Everything for OU, except for the finish. A disturbing and gut-wrenching trend under head coach Porter Moser. Add it to the list.

Gotta get back up.

“I can’t say enough to our guys,” Moser said. “I told them to keep their head up. They battled their tails off (against) a high-level team in a high-level atmosphere. We’ve gotta channel that to go into the last game against Ole Miss. But I thought down the stretch, we messed up a switch with 45 seconds left and you left him open under the basket. We were hugging him and he spun off on us on the baseline for a dunk, and he made a really tough play going left off-balance. We fouled him a number of times. But I can’t say enough about our guys’ efforts. How tough they were. How they battled back. Played the right way. Just competed and believed.

“I’m hurting for them that they fell one play short in this game. But we’ve gotta channel it and go right back Saturday and channel it towards Ole Miss.”

Fears played another great game with 18 points, eight rebounds and six assists. He was hounded all night, and the Wildcats attempted to bully him and get him out of his element for all 40 minutes.

After the block in the final seconds, Brandon Garrison went right into Fears’ face as time expired. Things were tense and chippy, leading to teams bypassing the postgame handshake line.

Senior Jalon Moore had 20 points and six rebounds.

It almost looked like Glenn Taylor was going to play the role of unlikely hero, burying a 3-pointer with just over a minute left in the game for an 81-80 lead. He went for the dagger on the next possession and couldn’t convert.

“It’s hard to not let him shoot it,” Moser said. “Had a good look. It’s almost a dagger if you’re up four. He just hit one. Was wide open, was a good shoot. Good follow through, didn’t hesitate. If he makes it? Up four with a minute left. He had a good drive before that. That didn’t cost us the game. You get stops, gotta get stops. Otega made some really good moves. Tip my hat off to him.”

Up next

OU (17-11, 4-11) has to somehow, again, shake off one of these gut-punches. The Sooners head to Ole Miss. The Rebels are currently going through it, on a three-game losing streak. Tip is set for 1 p.m. Saturday.

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