AUSTIN, Texas–It took overtime to do it, but Oklahoma won its fourth straight game and sixth in eight contests with a thrilling 88-85 victory at Texas in the regular season finale on Saturday at a sold-out Moody Center.
Read more: OU beats Texas in overtimeOU, which was ahead for 30 of 45 minutes on the night, squandered a 12-point lead with 6:58 remaining in regulation and a six-point advantage with 38 seconds to go, as UT’s Jordan Pope was fouled on a 3-pointer with 3.8 seconds left and converted all three free throw attempts to force the extra session.
The Sooners (17-14, 7-11 SEC) scored first in overtime but found itself down by one when Mohamed Wague tipped in a missed 3-point attempt by Nijel Pack for an 83-82 lead with 1:04 left. After a defensive stop, Xavier Brown found Derrion Reid in the corner for a key 3-pointer and four-point lead with 11 seconds on the clock. OU forced another miss on Texas’ next possession and Pack buried two free throws on the other end to seal the game.
The guard duo of Pack and Brown combined to make 15 field goals and led the Sooners with 23 and 21 points, respectively. Pack was 3-for-7 from 3-point distance while Brown was 2 for 4 from deep and logged a team-high four assists and game-high four steals. It was the eighth 20-point outing for each player in SEC play.
Tae Davis added 14 points and a game-high nine rebounds for OU and Reid scored 11 with the help of 6-for-6 free throw shooting. Wague contributed eight points, five boards and two steals for a Sooners team that outshot Texas 44%-41% from the field. In the Longhorns’ 79-69 win in Norman on Jan. 31, they shot 60% from the floor.
Pope finished with 30 points for Texas (18-13, 9-9 SEC), going 8 for 25 from the field, 7 for 18 from behind the arc and 7 for 7 at the foul line.
With the game tied at 53, Oklahoma went on a 16-4 run to take a 69-57 lead with 6:58 to go. Pack hit back-to-back treys and scored eight straight points for OU during the stretch and Brown capped the spurt with a 3-pointer from the left wing. But Texas outscored OU 20-8 the rest of the second half and took momentum to overtime.
The Sooners were ahead for 13 minutes of the first half and built a nine-point lead at 24-15 with 9:30 to go before the Longhorns responded with a 10-0 run behind a pair of Matas Vokietaitis and-ones to take the lead. UT extended its advantage to five before settling for a 40-36 halftime edge.
OU didn’t commit its first turnover until 7:34 remained in the first half but had five the rest of the stanza and five more in the second half. Texas committed 12 turnovers on the night and the Sooners outscored the Longhorns 16-10 off miscues. OU also posted a 40-35 rebounding advantage and converted its 10 offensive rebounds into 17 second-chance points.
Oklahoma improved to 59-50 all-time against Texas and to 22-26 against the Longhorns in Austin. The Sooners have won at UT nine times since the turn of the century, including in three of the last six years.
Since OU and Texas joined the SEC in July 2024, the road team has won all four men’s basketball matchups.
Next up for Oklahoma is the SEC Tournament in Nashville, Tenn. The No. 11-seeded Sooners will play a first-round game on Wednesday against No. 14 seed South Carolina (13-18, 4-14) at approximately 8:30 p.m. CT inside Bridgestone Arena.
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