OU Basketball: No. 11 Oklahoma Can Build Momentum With Rivalry Win Over Texas
NORMAN — Oklahoma’s road breakthrough won’t matter if the Sooners can’t hold serve at home.
OU (15-3, 3-2 Big 12) went to Cincinnati and stole a game on Saturday, surviving a late push to beat the Bearcats 69-65 and stacking a second straight conference victory.
The win capped off a week in which the Sooners notched two victories, stopping the backslide of back-to-back road losses to TCU and Kansas.
Now, No. 11 Oklahoma has a chance to make real inroads in the race to the top of the Big 12.
OU hosts a pair of contests this week, one against Rodney Terry’s Texas Longhorns (13-5, 2-3) and against No. 20 Texas Tech.
Up first, Red River hostilities renew Tuesday at Lloyd Noble Center at 6 p.m., a matchup savory enough for ESPN to carry.
The Longhorns bounced back from a stunning home defeat Wednesday against UCF — one in which Texas threw away a 16-point lead — to outlast No 15 Baylor on Saturday in Austin.
Four of Texas’ five Big 12 games have been decided by six points or less, so the Sooners should expect no different than what they faced in the tight contest in Cincinnati.
More than just scorers Javian McCollum and Milos Uzan, it was Oklahoma’s bench that helped push the team across the finish line on Saturday.
John Hugley IV gave the Sooners key minutes while Sam Godwin was in foul trouble, and Le’Tre Darthard and Rivaldo Soares brought hard-nosed defense and each hit clutch free throws in the final moments of the game to deny the Bearcats an improbable comeback.
“Think about the free throws those guys made,” OU coach Porter Moser said on Monday. “I don’t know if you could tell on TV, but it was 13,000 and you couldn’t hear anything. They both went up there and knocked down the free throws. … Those two made really clutch free throws.”
The Sooners have become accustomed to full team showings, both in scoring and in the rebounding battle, and they’ll need all those pieces firing to slow down Texas.
Max Abmas has perfectly transitioned to the Big 12, as the former Oral Roberts transfer leads the Longhorns at 17.7 points and 4.4 assists per game while also adding 2.9 rebounds.
Dylan Disu, Texas’ senior 6-foot-9 star, adds 14.7 points and 3.3 rebounds. Guard Tyrese Hunter, who came up clutch in Saturday’s 75-73 win over Baylor, averages another 12.6 points per game, and Dillon Mitchell nearly averages a double-double with 11.0 points and 8.6 rebounds per outing.
The threat starts with Abmas (pronounced "ace-muss"), who is lighting up Big 12 defenses just as he tormented his opposition in the Summit League.
“Seamless,” Moser said. “You don’t get that many points, I don’t care what level, if you don’t know how to put that ball in the hole and see it go in the hole.
“… Max has just got so much confidence. Plays with great pace. He can get his shots off at any level. … He’s one of the premier guards in our league.”
OU’s defense will get tested with all the perimeter athleticism Texas uses to attack the basket, but the Sooners must come up with big rebounds to limit the Longhorns’ second-chance opportunities.
McCollum, Uzan and Soares have all made an impact to work toward the bucket and rebound, but forward Jalon Moore has done well to clean the glass in conference play.
Across five Big 12 contests, Moore is averaging 7.4 rebounds per game, including a 11-rebound performance against Kansas and 10 boards on Saturday against the Bearcats.
“He can go get those in traffic rebounds,” Moser said. “Those ones that maybe a smaller guard is trying to tip or gets over the back, he’s rising above and grabbing them. So he gets you those.
“… It’s all hands on deck with defensive rebounding. You can’t just rely (on big men). Everybody’s got to box out. This league sends so many guys to the glass. This league has so many good offensive rebounders. You got to box out and then you got to release and you need guards rebounding down.”
The group effort has allowed OU’s guards to get out and initiate the offense, duties that McCollum and Uzan have shared unselfishly.
“They understand that having each other is a positive,” Moser said. “It's not all the pressure on one guy handling it. … Both those guys can handle it and go downhill and create. So to have multiple guys that can do that, that's huge.”
Oklahoma’s bid to string together three straight wins will start with taking care of the basketball and rebounding, and if the Sooners can execute as they did in their last outing, they’ll have a shot to build real momentum at home.
But through the peaks and valley’s of Tuesday’s battle against Texas, OU will have to continue to display the mental toughness and press on through whatever adversity presents itself.
“You understand it’s a 40-minute game,” Moser said. “You’d like to have great starts. But we got punched in the mouth at Kansas. Sam got us going with an offensive rebound.
“It just has to be gritty, man. The game won’t be won or lost in the first five minutes.”
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