NORMAN — Porter Moser had been frustrated with his team as it had plunged into a five-game losing streak. Whether it was the four losses by at least 18 points, or the home collapse to LSU when the Sooners led by five with 24 seconds to go, Moser had challenged his team to play with more resiliency.

On Saturday, with the Sooners trailing No. 21 Mississippi State 37-34 at halftime, it was yet another opportunity to answer the call or wilt under the pressure.

This time, the Sooners delivered in a game they simply had to win. They came away with a 93-87 win over the Bulldogs at the Lloyd Noble Center.

The Sooners came out with a clear focus and urgency they had lacked in recent games, and it started on offense. Fueled by eight quick points from Jalon Moore, including a pair of corner 3-pointers, the Sooners scored 21 points in the first six minutes of the second half that allowed them to snag a 55-51 lead over Mississippi State.

It was a lead that the Sooners would never relinquished, but there were moments where it appeared the collapse was coming. The biggest moment came when the Bulldogs used an 8-2 lead to cut the Sooners' lead to 73-69 with 6:37 to go.

But every time, Oklahoma had an answer. The first one came when Dayton Forsythe entered the game and immediately hit a 3-pointer. On the next possession, Brycen Goodine wad fouled on a made a corner 3 and made the free throw, pushing the lead back to 12 points.

The Bulldogs attempted another late rally late in the game, cutting Oklahoma's 14-point lead down to three with 27 seconds to go. But this time — unlike the LSU stunner — the Sooners got a pair of free throws from Forsythe and a couple of late stops to seal the win.

"Just start talking from the beginning of the game — used the analogy of the tug of war," Moser said. "Tug of war. The other team is going to tug back. What’s going to be our resistance? What’s going to be our resiliency? You look at the tug of war, and you have to take your hand, take your feet in the sand. I thought we kept tugging back when they were trying to make a run. Down three at half and come back and be up 14 on them. A phenomenal team.

"Physical, but just the resiliency mentally, too. It’s a lot mentally."

Unlike the last couple weeks, the Sooners made the plays they needed to make to come away with a critical win. The Sooners scored 59 points in the second half while shooting 17-of-25 from the field (68%), 7-of-13 from the 3-point line (54%) and 18-of-23 from the free throw line (78%).

With the win, the Sooners improve to 17-10 on the season and 4-10 in conference play. Most importantly, they snag a ranked win after falling out of the latest NCAA Tournament projections.

Here's a few notes from the win:

— Jeremiah Fears was fantastic from beginning to end. He went into halftime with 15 points and six rebounds, then finished with 27 points, five rebounds and 10 assists while shooting 7-of-12 from the floor.

It was a rough several weeks for the true freshman, but he's found a groove in the last couple of games.

"When you want it as bad as he does, just think of it, you start to press," Moser said. "When you’re not having success, you just press harder. When you’re older, you kind of know how to fight through that and what to do to get through it. I think he’s figured it out. We’ve really showed just so much film with him talking through it, about the attention he’s garnering, that when you give it up, and you start hitting the roles, hitting the roles, you’re skipping it for threes."

— It was a real struggle for Moore, who scored just three points on 1-of-7 shooting in the first half.

But Moore found a better rhythm in the second half, scoring 15 points while playing a huge role in the Sooners' early run after halftime.

"We talked about just the transfer of belief,: Moser said. "His body language from the LSU game to this game. The whole time he was chirping in huddles. 'We've gotta execute the press break.' You could just hear him, feel the belief in there. That's what was different for Jalon Moore."

— Sam Godwin has taken some real flak the last several weeks, and rightfully so. He was averaging just 4.7 points and 3.0 rebounds in conference play coming into the game.

But against the Bulldogs, he was huge. Godwin finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds while adding two blocks and two steals.

— There was a scary moment in the second half when Duke Miles dove for a loose ball. Miles' head hit the floor, and he appeared to lose some teeth. He was attended to on the sidelines before eventually reentering the game late.

"Our team dentist was in there when I left to do the radio, so I know his teeth weren’t that pretty right now," Moser said. "We’ll have Doc do his magic. He was was doing fine when I left. We talked to him. He’s just hustling. He was diving for a ball.”

— Up next: The Sooners host No. 17 Kentucky at 8 p.m. Wednesday (SEC Network).

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