OU Basketball: Oklahoma Collapses in Second Half as Sooners Fall to Texas A&M

The Sooners held an 18-point lead in the second half, but that lead quickly evaporated in their two-point loss to the Aggies.

BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

NORMAN — Oklahoma’s SEC opener was a beatdown. Its second game was a collapse

After holding an 18-point lead in the second half, the No. 17 Sooners fell 80-78 to No. 10 Texas A&M on Wednesday night at Lloyd Noble Center.

OU fell to 0-2 in league play after finishing the non-conference portion of its schedule 13-0.

"It’s a very, very, very tough loss," Oklahoma coach Porter Moser said.

Here are three takeaways from the loss:

Second-half collapse

After starting the second half on a 12-3 run, the Sooners’ momentum evaporated.

OU got out to an 18-point lead — 51-33 — but allowed the Aggies to get back into the game. Texas A&M followed OU’s half-opening run with its own 8-0 run to stay within striking distance.

The Aggies really caught fire at the end of the game.

With roughly eight minutes remaining, Texas A&M began a 12-0 run where the Aggies made 11-of-13 field-goal attempts. That run gave them their first lead since early in the first half.

Sam Godwin's layup put OU back in front with 1:05 left, as the teams went back and forth. Jeremiah Fears, with OU up by a point, missed the front of a 1-and-1 free throw with 29 seconds left before A&M’s Zhuric Phelps hit the game-winning 3-pointer with 14 seconds remaining. After an OU turnover, A&M missed a free throw but Fears' three-quarter court heave was off target at the buzzer.

Phelps finished with a career-high 34 points.

"Phelps was elite to guard tonight," Moser said. "He was driving by you, he was getting to the foul line… he made you pay. He took some big-time off-the-dribble threes. Just an elite performance by him."

The Sooners committed 18 turnovers, 10 of which came in the second half, including seven in a 10-minute stretch.

Brycen Goodine legacy game

Now at his fourth school, Brycen Goodine played far and away his best game as a Sooner.

The guard, who came off the bench, finished the game with 34 points. That was just short of his career high of 40, which he logged while playing at Fairfield.

Goodine got started early, finishing the first half with 20 points — more than half of OU’s halftime total. He went 6-of-8 on 3-pointers in the first 20 minutes.

"Brycen Goodine was on a heater as much as you can get on a heater," Moser said. "It’s tough to have a performance like that and lose. That’s the honest answer."

Jeremiah Fears and Jalon Moore did most of the work early in the second half, but Goodine caught fire again to end the game. Goodine notched 14 in the final 20 minutes after his 20-point first half. He made 10-of-14 field goals, including 9-of-11 from 3-point range, and 5-of-6 free throws.

Starting only one non-conference game, Goodine has been a reliable bench player for the Sooners, averaging 5.9 points per game before Wednesday. He arrived in Norman in the offseason after stints at Syracuse, Providence and Fairfield.

0-2 start

After winning every non-conference game, the Sooners are winless thus far in SEC play.

A win on Wednesday would have been a Quad 1 victory for the Sooners, as Texas A&M was No. 17 in the NET rankings. Instead, it’s a Quad 1 loss, and OU is now 0-2 in that category.

The good news for OU is that the SEC is stacked. All 16 SEC programs are within the top 100 of the NET, and 14 of them are in the top 50.

"This is the best league in college basketball; no one’s going to go undefeated," Oklahoma forward Sam Godwin said. "It sucks, and it hurts like hell to lose this game. But every game’s a quad-one opportunity."

An 0-2 start is far from what the Sooners wanted. But there’s plenty of time for them to make up for it.

Their first chance is on Saturday, when OU battles Georgia in Athens. The Bulldogs, 13-2 and No. 29 in the NET, upset No. 6 Kentucky 82-69 on Tuesday.

"We’ve gotta win on the road," Moser said. "We have to bounce back."

Saturday’s game tips off at 5 p.m. CT on ESPN2.