Oklahoma Swept by TCU, Drops First Ever Home Loss to Frogs

The Sooners struggled to slow down the Horned Frog offense, falling to 1-6 in their last seven contests.

Desperately needing a win, the Oklahoma Sooners came up short on Monday night.

Hosting the TCU Horned Frogs at Lloyd Noble Center, OU was unable to avoid the season sweep against TCU, losing 72-63.

The loss was Oklahoma’s sixth in the last seven games, and the Sooners fell to 13-9 overall (3-6 in Big 12 play). TCU moved to 15-4 (4-3) with the victory.

OU was 14-0 against the Frogs all-time in Norman.

Turnovers weren’t an issue for the Sooners, but Porter Moser’s team still couldn’t find a way to get the much-needed victory.

The Horned Frog offense had plenty of success against the OU defense, knocking down 53 percent of their field goal attempts. The mark was the third-highest field goal percentage the Sooners have allowed this year, falling just behind Baylor’s 56 percent field goal shooting performance in Waco and Iowa State’s 55.8 mark earlier in January.

“Gotta be better,” Moser said of the defensive effort after the game in a Zoom press conference. “We’ve got to guard the ball.

“… Some of our team defense was OK, but you’ve got to start with the basics. They drove by us, created help and dropped it off. Or they drove by us, floated it up just to get it on the glass and went and got it. Our inability to guard the ball today was evident.”

TCU had the offense cooking right from the start, quickly building a 15-7 lead to start the game before OU found a spark in an experienced duo off the bench.

Ethan Chargois and Elijah Harkless gave OU some nice minutes, helping to get the Sooners back into the game before halftime.

Chargois’ entrance into the game was immediately followed by a 7-0 Oklahoma run, as the big man did a little bit of everything for the Sooners. The SMU transfer scored two points, dished out three assists, pulled down three rebounds and even swiped a steal over a four-minute period in the first half.

Then Harkless helped spark another Sooner run.

After adjusting to his new role off the bench, Harkless had his best offensive performance in nearly a month. Drilling a pair of 3-pointers in the first half, Harkless helped OU go on a 13-3 run near the end of the first half, ultimately cutting the deficit back down to 36-35 at halftime.

"Coach (Moser) always says to get your mind in the game before your body,” Harkless said after the game. “That was just something I had a couple of practice games to do. Today I executed on that a little better. The goal is to keep getting better on that each and every game."

But TCU again came out firing in the second half.

Withstanding a physical start to the second half, TCU went on a 9-0 run to take a 52-42 lead with 11:45 remaining, and the Sooners struggled to cut the lead back within striking distance from there.

Even when the OU defense would force a miss, the Sooners couldn’t get the job done on the boards to regain possession and initiate their offense on the other end.

TCU won the rebounding battle 42-20, allowing the Horned Frogs to keep possession of the ball and slowly bleed out the clock.

“They overwhelmed us,” Moser said. “Their athleticism, length, size, physicality, like five checkmarks overwhelmed us on the glass.

“You can’t win 42-20. You can’t win with that disparage on the glass.”

Harkless was able to cut the deficit to five points with 38.7 seconds remaining, but that’s as close as OU would get to pulling out an improbable second-half comeback.

Jordan Goldwire and Harkless finished as Oklahoma’s joint leading scorers, both finishing with 13 points on the night.

The scoring output was Harkless’ best offensive night since his 13-point outing against the Iowa State Cyclones on Jan. 8.

“We need him,” Moser said. “He’s gonna be a key player in these games coming up. We need guys to play well. It was great to see him play better.”

Up next, the Sooners take a trip to Stillwater this weekend for the first Bedlam bout of the season. Tip-off between the Sooners and the Oklahoma State Cowboys is scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday, and the game will be broadcast on ESPN.

Though Oklahoma has been thoroughly frustrated over the past seven games, Moser maintained the mood in the locker room has stayed positive.

“Absolutely not going to lose this locker room,” Moser said. “That’s not a concern at all. That was our message.

“… We can’t have like two guys play well. We need a consistent group effort of playing well to win… We have a chance – there are a lot of opportunities for great games coming up. We have to play better.”

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