OU basketball caught in The Phog once again, 78-66

LAWRENCE, Kan. – OU basketball is going to have to wait another time to make history. Or at least the kind of history it wants to make at Kansas.

The streak continues as OU still seeks that elusive win at Allen Fieldhouse. This time, though, it wasn’t really a close call in a 78-66 loss to the Jayhawks on Saturday in front of 16,300 fans. OU is now 0-23 in Lawrence since its last win in 1993.

OU briefly led in the second half before KU took over and never looked back. And one reason it never had to look back? Taking care of the ball.

The Sooners weren’t terrible in that regard with 11 turnovers. But the Jayhawks were dang-near perfect with just two giveaways in the 40 minutes.

“We didn’t guard well enough in the second half,” head coach Porter Moser said. “It put a lot of pressure on our offense when you don’t guard that way. They do that to you. You have to give them credit. Two turnovers. That’s really good efficiency. We’ve been better than that. We didn’t make them have any stress, as much as we need to and how we have. You have to give them credit.

“There was a lot of thinking going on – what are you doing with Hunter (Dickinson)? What are you doing with KJ (Adams)? And then you got Dajuan (Harris). Those big four showed up and showed big. Their big four right there really put pressure on us. (Kevin) MucCullar was super efficient – 21 points on 12 shots, drew fouls. KJ, really in the first half, had all his 15 in the first half. Dajuan had eight assists and no turnovers.”

Dickinson (24 points), McCullar (21) and Adams (15) combined for 60 of the 78 points for KU.

OU was down just 48-46, but KU took over midway through the second half to stretch it out to a double-digit lead. The Sooners never really threatened down the stretch.

Javian McCollum finished with 17 points but also had six turnovers. Milos Uzan had 15 points, and the duo had six of the team’s eight assists.

“When it got really tough, you’ve gotta answer tough with tough,” Moser said. “I think it was just putting a lot of pressure on our offense when we couldn’t get stops. You want your guys to be aggressive and then they might be on the floor and running and all of a sudden our guys are being aggressive and they drive it in and that’s as good as a turnover. Driving it in on Hunter or KJ when they’re straight up and down. You’re drawing two, you’ve got to play off two feet and kick. You’ve got to make that play.”

Game 16 Takeaways

*Moser has talked a lot about the eight-man rotation. But the those three guys off the bench simply didn’t have it this afternoon.

John Hugley, Rivaldo Soares and Le’Tre Darthard combined for five points on 2-for-10 shooting in 53 minutes of play.

Moser hasn’t lost confidence in any of those guys, but it was rough sledding this week.

*A positive? Luke Northweather. No, he didn’t have any answers on the defensive end. But he did drain two 3-pointers in just under eight minutes of action.

It’s not just the six points, but he didn’t look overwhelmed. Even when he didn’t shoot it, he moved the ball around well and had the offense in a flow.

Up next

Gotta get right at home. Gotta figure it out at the Lloyd Noble Center. No. 9 OU (13-3, 1-2) hosts West Virginia on Wednesday night. It’s the conference mantra. Hold serve at home and steal some on the road. OU went 0-2 on the road this week, but get it rolling again in Norman. Students will also be back this week.