Moral victories simply don’t exist when you’re in February and doing everything you can to secure yourself a spot in the NCAA tournament.
No doubt that Oklahoma has been involved in three fantastic games in the last seven days, but the Sooners are 1-2 in that stretch. The latest being a gut-wrenching 80-78 overtime loss against visiting No. 20 Texas on Tuesday evening at Lloyd Noble Center.
You can’t fault the effort, and that’s not something first-year head coach Porter Moser had issues with. But the little things begin to add up.
The Sooners played a relatively clean overtime, making every shot until a desperation three-pointer by Elijah Harkless didn’t fall as time expired.
Made every free throw. But two turnovers, allowing a couple of offensive rebounds, and that’s how OU finds itself now 14-12 overall and 4-9 in Big 12 play.
“Man, I tell you, EJ, Jalen, Mo, they gave everything they had for this game,” Moser said. “They're giving everything they've got. We just got to be smarter in certain situations.
“We’re playing hard enough. We have to play smart enough. We have to play smarter. Right now, we’re all miserable. But we have two choices. Keep fighting. This group has kept on fighting. I’ve been asked on this many times. How’s the locker room? This locker room is fighting. Every practice we’re fighting. There’s no question we’re better than a month ago… This team is not dead. This team is playing its best basketball right now.”
The Sooners trailed 66-62 before tying it at 66-66 with a chance for the game-winner in regulation. Ethan Chargois had a great look at a three-pointer, but it was too strong.
“We were getting a lot of rip and drives,” Moser said. “We ran a little ghost screen and we were trying to rip and drive. Earlier in the game, we were setting that ball screen, we’d ghost and then came in and ripping.
“We wanted Jordan to rip and drive. They kind of bottled it up. Ethan kind of popped. Obviously, we’d like him to roll but he popped. He actually got a wide open 3. But we were trying to get Jordan going downhill on a rip and drive we got earlier in the game.”
OU has now lost nine of its last 11 games, including back-to-back two-point losses in the span of four days vs. top-20-ranked opponents Kansas (71-69) and now Texas.
In overtime, both teams were hitting shots and executing on offense. OU fouled, trailing 79-78, with 4 seconds left but without any timeouts.
After Marcus Carr made the first free throw, he missed the second. In the scramble situation, Tanner Groves took a couple of dribbles before finding Harkless for a contested, deep three that caromed off the top of the backboard.
“We were trying to get it up the sideline,” Moser said. “If they missed, we were trying to outlet it and then up the sideline and try to get it as fast as we can in attack mode. Tanner got it and then took two dribbles and then he got it to EJ. We were trying to get it outlet-ed.”
The loss stings, and it’s going to be a challenge, both physically and mentally, for the Sooners as OU heads to Iowa State on Saturday.
A lot of good, some bad, but a lot of miles put on from the starting group.
Elijah Harkless had 19 points and five steals in 41 minutes. Jordan Goldwire ran the show again with 18 points and just one turnover in 38 minutes. Mo Gibson was the only perimeter threat, making four 3-pointers with 17 points in 38 minutes. And Jalen Hill was a workhorse inside with 16 points and six rebounds in 36 minutes before fouling out.
Whew, tired legs.
“It's going to be very, very important,” said Harkless about the leadership responding rest of the week. “It's going to come from within because it's self-inflicted wounds on why we've been falling down on these close games. It's stuff that we can definitely control, so it has to come from within.
“Coaches can point it out as much as they can, but they can't go out there and do it. Rebounding has been a big thing for us this whole year, and I think that's something that we've got to – as a team and as leaders from inside – it's got to come from within.”
