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OU basketball had to take a tough look in the mirror

Bob Przybyloby:Bob Przybylo•about 11 hours•

BPrzybylo

Jalon Moore20
OU senior Jalon Moore. (Alonzo Adams - Imagn Images)

With each second OU head coach Porter Moser kept talking, the volume kept going up. The anger, embarrassment intensified.

As happy as Moser was with the OU effort in the final 15 minutes of a 77-73 loss to rival Texas, nobody could explain the initial 25 minutes.

OU cut a 23-point deficit in the second half against the Longhorns to two but could never get over the hump Wednesday. A fourth straight SEC loss and a couple of days to think about it.

To think why was OU so flat coming out against its rival in front of a solid Lloyd Noble Center crowd? To try to figure out how to stop the 0-4 bleeding.

Tough questions had to be asked and answered. Part of that? Moser changed up the practice schedule. Despite the fact OU-UT ended just before midnight, the Sooners were back at it Thursday. Not just a light practice to stay fresh. Really back at it.

It worked, or at least got the job done for one game. OU trailed 42-38 to visiting South Carolina before coming alive and dominating the rest of the way.

Sooners 82, Gamecocks 62, and the SEC monkey is off the back.

“It was tough. You’re gonna have, in this profession, low points,” Moser told SoonerScoop on Saturday. “I told our guys, the last 15 minutes of that game and then after the practice the next day, a lot of times we don’t go live. We went live and guarded. We wanted to get that taste out of our mouth. I said, in a weird way, I’m more encouraged right now. We didn’t coach effort. We didn’t coach energy. Coached execution and different things. The guys responded.

“It was a really hard low point that game, walking off that floor. The guys stayed together, believed. We needed it. That narrative is over, we got an SEC win. Now let’s go. Start stacking wins, playing better so we can stack wins. Really huge, Thursday and Friday.”

You can get so consumed by the wins and losses, especially during a rough stretch. It’s very easy to lose your way.

A gut-wrenching, perplexing loss to the Longhorns might have been what was necessary to wake up the rest of the team.

“We had an old school company mission statement: We need to play better winning basketball to win games,” Moser said.

It started, as it will need to, with freshman Jeremiah Fears and senior Jalon Moore. It cannot be either/or with these two. Moore and Fears need to show up every night and get support. That support can be from any number of guys, but Moore and Fears have to anchor it all.

Moore wouldn’t be denied on his way to 22 points and eight rebounds. Fears played one of his best all-around games and definitely his best one in the SEC. He had 16 points, nine rebounds, eight assists, two steals and just two turnovers. Career highs in both rebounds and assists.

So OU got the taste out of its mouth. Now? A whole week to springboard off the second half against South Carolina. The Sooners (14-4, 1-4) are at Arkansas (0-5) at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.

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