Sooners Use Late Surge To Sweep Longhorns

After crushing Texas 70-49 back on Jan. 5, the Sooners knew that the visiting Longhorns would be out for revenge on Tuesday.

And while it looked as though Texas might indeed get its payback, Oklahoma snatched a 71-69 victory out of the jaws of defeat in front of a packed house at the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman.

In what was a back-and-forth affair for most of the night, the Longhorns seized control midway through the second half. UT used a 13-5 run to gain a 53-47 lead with a little more than 10 minutes to play. After OU scrapped back and cut it to one, Texas used a Kendal Yancy 3-ball and a pair of free throws from Myles Turner to increase the lead to six with 3:36 to go.

But Oklahoma erased that before the Horns could blink.

Jordan Woodard drained a huge 3-pointer to cut OU's deficit in half, and after forcing a Javan Felix turnover, TaShawn Thomas made the play of the game. Hield launched a 3-ball in an attempt to tie it, and after it bounced off of the front iron, Thomas grabbed the offensive board and powered through Turner for the hoop and the harm. Thomas sank the free throw and tied things up for the first time in nearly 13 minutes.

OU added two more buckets to complete a 10-0 run and put this game on ice. The win is OU's fourth straight over the Longhorns.

The Sooners (18-8, 9-5) had seven players score, and all finished somewhere between eight and 13 points. Woodard was the high man, while Frank Booker and Dinjiyl Walker each scored 10 off of the bench. Hield, OU's leading scorer, struggled mightily and was held to just 12 points on 4-of-16 shooting.

Texas (17-9, 6-7) was led by the freshman Turner, who scored 17 points to go with 10 rebounds and six blocks. Yancy finished with 14.

Oklahoma shot just 26.1 percent from the floor but made up for it with excellent ball control. OU turned it over just five times and forced the Longhorns into 13 giveaways.

OU is back at it on Saturday at Texas Tech at 11 a.m.