No surprise here as many expected a young but talented Texas Longhorns team to come into Norman and come away with a win. The Longhorns were the favored team, but the Oklahoma Sooners challenged them through the first half. Like we have seen before, the Sooners come out flat at the start of the second half and let teams build a lead too big to overcome. Such was the case once again tonight.
Oklahoma looked to be up to the challenge in the first half. With a just under a minute to play, OU led 33-25. The Longhorns made a late surge that carried over into the second half as J' Covan Brown hit 3-ball after 3-ball which sparked the offense. The Horns took a 54-42 lead after mounting a 19-5 run to open the second half. Brown hit his season marks as the leading scorer in the Big XII and finished with 19 point while Myck Kabongo and Sheldon McClellan both added 13.
For Oklahoma, Steven Pledger struggled at the start and Andrew Fitzgerald found himself in foul trouble. It is never a good sign when two of your only scoring options are having off nights. However, Pledger would lead Oklahoma in scoring once again as he posted 18. Cameron Clark had one of his better nights as he and Romero Osby finished with 13 a piece.
While Oklahoma shot better from the field than Texas did, the difference was at the charity stripe. The Longhorns gave away a total of 10 fouls the entire game, limiting the number of times Oklahoma made the trip to the free throw line. In total, OU shot eight free throws. On the other hand, the Sooners committed 22 fouls and Texas found a player standing at the charity stripe 29 different times.
Oklahoma needed to stay aggressive in attacking the rim and drawing the foul. Tonight was an unsuccessful attempt at doing so.