Oklahoma Falls at Home to Texas Tech

Missing "that fire" and losing their second consecutive game for the first time all season sets up the Sooners for a huge match at Iowa State on Saturday.

John E. Hoover | Feb 17, 2022

Oklahoma fell 97-87 to Texas Tech on Wednesday night at Lloyd Noble Center, marking the Sooners’ first back-to-back losses of the season.

OU overcame a 10-point deficit by halftime, but couldn’t overcome the Red Raiders in the second half.

“I thought Texas Tech did an incredible job and controlled the game from the tip,” head coach Jennie Baranczyk said. “We need to be better and we need to be ready – and that's on us as a coaching staff. We have to have our team prepared and so I'm disappointed in a variety of things. But all the credit to them (Texas Tech), they're a really good basketball team and earned it tonight.”

No. 15 Oklahoma (20-5 overall, 9-4 in Big 12 play) stays in second place in the Big 12 race with a revenge match against first-place Iowa State looming Saturday in Ames.

“We didn't have the fire that we've had,” Baranczyk said. “We didn't have the competitiveness. This is gut check time — are we going to be the team that has that or not? If we play with that kind of energy, it’s a different game. We needed to play harder.”

Skylar Vann led OU with 17 points, while Madi Williams scored 16 and Nevaeh Tot tied her career high with 16. Taylor Robertson made one 3-pointer and finished with 14 points.

Texas Tech (10-14, 3-10) scored the game’s first eight points and led 14-4 midway through the first quarter.

After OU forced a 37-37 tie at the break, Liz Scott hit a pair of free throws to put OU in front 57-55. But Tech outscored the Sooners 34-27 in the fourth quarter — powered by 20-of-22 free throw shooting in the final period.

The Sooners and No. 6-ranked Iowa State (21-4, 10-3) — who was beaten 73-48 by No. 14 Texas — tip off at 6 p.m. Saturday inside Hilton Coliesum on ESPN+.

Published Feb 17, 2022

JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.