OU Basketball: Three Takeaways From No. 9 Oklahoma's Loss to No. 5 Texas

The Sooners were unable to overcome 27 turnovers against Texas in Thursday's SEC opener at the Lloyd Noble Center.

Oklahoma Sooners guard Payton Verhulst / BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

NORMAN — The first SEC battle between Oklahoma and Texas on the hardwood was one to remember. 

The No. 9-ranked Sooners duked it out for 40 minutes with the No. 5 Longhorns on Thursday night in a contest with six lead changes, 54 fouls called and a 12-minute video review after some pushing and shoving broke out under the Texas basket in the final minute of the third quarter. 

The game entered the fourth quarter tied, but Texas was able to take care of the ball over the final 10 minutes and snap its two-game losing skid at the hands of the Sooners. 

Jennie Baranczyk’s team fell 80-73, moving the Longhorns to 14-1 overall this season and 1-0 in SEC play while OU dropped to 12-2 and 0-1.

Here are three takeaways from Thursday’s physical battle:

Hot Potato 

After a strong start that saw the Sooners build a nine-point lead at the end of the first quarter, OU struggled to take care of the basketball. 

Baranczyk’s team turned the ball over eight times in the second quarter alone, allowing the Longhorns to take a halftime lead, and OU matched that with another eight turnovers in the third quarter. 

The Longhorns converted the 27 Oklahoma mistakes into 28 points, which got their offense going. 

"We did struggle getting into a flow but it was also was hard to get in a flow when we passed to the wrong team," Baranczyk said after the game. "So we need to do a better job of taking care of the ball."

Oklahoma guard Payton Verhulst said the Sooners weren’t surprised by Texas’ full-court press, which compounded the frustrations. 

"We really focused a lot on taking care of the ball," she said. "... So I think it hurts that that was something that hurt us a lot because we focused and worked a lot on that in practice. And just going from here we know what we can work on so we can only get better."

But the Sooners squandered another crucial advantage. 

Texas leads the country in free throw attempts per game, shooting just over 26 each time out. Thursday, however, it was OU that go too the line more often. 

The Sooners were inefficient from the stripe. 

OU shot 18-for-25 from the line to Texas’ 17-of-21. That, paired with Oklahoma’s tough night from deep (the Sooners hit just 2-of-16 3-pointers) proved to be too much to overcome at the Lloyd Noble Center. 

Baranczyk felt the difficulties from deep stemmed from Oklahoma's other offensive issues on Thursday night.

"I think in the first half we got some really good looks. I really do," she said. "And those are going to go in. In the second half… we didn’t get enough of our pass-aheads. We didn’t get enough of our paint touches into a flow and player movement. I feel like we either got tired and we would pass and stand. But when we move the ball… we’re going to get some open looks."

Verhulst Shines Again 

In the Sooners’ only other loss of the season, an overtime defeat to Duke, Verhulst recorded a triple-double. 

Though she didn’t hit that mark on Thursday, she still did everything she could to try and power Oklahoam to a win. 

She led all scorers with 23 points on 7-of-23 shooting, adding eight rebounds and four assists.

Crucially, she only turned the ball over once, while the rest of the team struggled to handle the basketball. 

Nevaeh Tot ended with six turnovers and Skylar Vann had four herself, meaning things were uneasy when the Sooners’ other primary ball handlers were in control. 

Verhulst tried to steady things for the Sooners, but was ultimately unable to do enough to pull off the win. 

Bench Jolt 

Liz Scott saved her best performance of the season for Oklahoma’s biggest game. 

The redshirt senior had a strong first shift, scoring seven points in the first quarter, but her high level of play became necessary as Raegan Beers fought through foul trouble. 

Scott battled a pair of 6-foot-6 Longhorn forwards in Taylor Jones and Kyla Oldacre, successfully holding up in the minutes without Beers on the floor. 

"Liz brought incredible energy," Baranczyk said. "Liz did some really good things… I was really pleased with that."

She tied her season-high with 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting and went 4-of-7 from the free throw line, and Scott also pulled down three rebounds. 

Scott and the rest of the team won’t have long to dwell on Thursday’s defeat. Oklahoma will have a chance to bounce back on Sunday when the Sooners hit the road to take on No. 15 Tennessee at 2 p.m.