No. 20 Texas Tech stuns Sooners with late rally

Norman — Things looked pretty good for the Sooners at the seven-minute mark of the second half. A pair of Otega Oweh layups pushed OU's lead to 68-59, and Texas Tech called a timeout as the Lloyd Noble Center crowed roared.

But the Sooners learned that a lot of things can change in seven minutes.

The Red Raiders immediately responded with a 7-0 run before tying the game a 73-73 with 2:52 to go. 40 seconds later, the Red Raiders took the lead. Rivaldo Soares responded with a 3-pointer, but Chance McMillian immediately countered with a 3 of his own.

Down two points with 17 seconds to go, the Sooners had the ball and one last chance to stay in it. But Milos Uzan's floater missed, and the Red Raiders rebounded the ball.

That put the finishing touches on the Sooners' 85-84 loss on Saturday, handing them their second-consecutive home loss in a game they had chances to win.

“It’s our issue with this team," OU coach Porter Moser said. "We've got certain — some of us, we take the foot off the gas defensively. We keep fighting, and I don’t have 30 timeouts. We come out of a timeout, and we have some guys simply — I've got to tip my hat off to Chance McMillian; I thought he had a career night.

"Everything matters when it’s a one-point loss."

Here's a look at takeaways and notes from a gut-punch loss on Saturday:

In the first half, the Sooners were solid. They held a 34-33 lead at halftime while limiting Texas Tech to just 12 of 32 (37.5%) from the floor.

It was a completely different story in the second half, and it played a crucial role in the Red Raiders' late rally. They shot 18 of 25 (72%) from the floor and 5 of 10 (50%) from 3. Much of that came from McMillian, who scored 17 of his 27 points (10/13 shooting) in the final 20 minutes. Pop Isaacs added 18 points.

The defense sabotaged what was one of the Sooners' best offensive performances of the season. They scored 84 points, their most in a conference game this season, on 47.5% shooting (29 of 61) and 42.3% (11 of 26) from the 3-point line.

The only problem? The Sooners shot just 13 of 22 (59%) from the free throw line, while the Red Raiders shot 16 of 19 (84%).

"I thought offensively, if you told me we'd have scored 84 points... I thought we did some really good things, man," Moser said. "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.

"(Allowing) 72 percent (shooting) in the second half defense and missing your free throws is very very tough to overcome against a top-20 team, number one in the Big 12."

— Javian McCollum continues to struggle in conference play. He finished with seven points and shot just 2 of 11 from the floor and didn't score in the second half. In his last three games, McCollum is averaging 10.7 points per game on 29% shooting.

While McCollum finished with three assists and zero turnovers, the Sooners need him to find his scoring.

— Sam Godwin had a rough three-game stretch heading into Texas Tech, totaling four points, seven rebounds, seven turnovers and 10 fouls. Before the game, Moser predicted he would bounce back against Texas Tech.

That's exactly what he did. He finished with 13 points and eight rebounds.

"I thought Sam was outstanding," Moser said. "... It was great to have that kind of effort for Sam. It should’ve been a great effort in a win. He was really tough in there and it was great to see him get back."

— Rivaldo Soares continues to make a big impact off the bench. He finished with a doube-double while leading the team in points (19) and rebounds (10).

— The Sooners weren't bitten by turnovers (11 for OU, 10 for TTU), points off turnovers (17 for both teams) or rebounds (34-32 in OU's favor). It was just their second-half defense that was the culprit.

— With the win, the No. 20 Red Raiders are now 16-3 (5-1 Big 12) and reaffirm their place atop the conference standings.

— Moser was adamant that the Sooners aren't giving up despite a back-to-back losses at home, which drops them to 15-5 and 3-4 in Big 12 play.

"The positive is these guys care," Moser said. "And this is not a broken locker room. This is a locker room that’s hurting right now... I mean the last two days, I couldn’t have asked for them to respond better against Texas. I can tell you they responded every which way you’d want young men to respond. They played their tails off in practice. They were locked in. We didn’t get it done. But it isn’t because we’re sitting here, we’ve got a fractured locker room. Attitude problems. We don’t have any of that, and that’s what gives me absolute passion to know that we still can build wins on this thing because our schedule is so tough.

"You’re going to get great opportunities to win. And that’s what I love about this team right now. They’re crushed and we’re crushed. I know all that. But that’s a good thing if they are. It’s a bad thing if they’re sitting there like pointing fingers and that. That’s not this locker room right now. They are really hurting right now. And that’s what’s going to make us bounce back."

— Up next: The Sooners travel to Kansas State for a 7 p.m. tip on Tuesday (ESPN+).