Oklahoma 75, No. 20 Texas 68

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) _ Both coaches looked beyond the box score while reviewing Oklahoma's 75-68 victory over No. 20 Texas. Maybe they couldn't bear to look. <br><br>There were 50 fouls called. Oklahoma

Thursday, January 25th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) _ Both coaches looked beyond the box score while reviewing Oklahoma's 75-68 victory over No. 20 Texas. Maybe they couldn't bear to look.

There were 50 fouls called. Oklahoma shot 31 free throws and made 22. Texas missed 13 of its 29 shots from the line, including nine of 12 in the final 3:44 Wednesday night.

Neither team seemed able to take advantage of its breaks, but Oklahoma held on for a needed victory, which was all coach Kelvin Sampson wanted.

``I'm just proud of our kids and the effort they put forth,'' he said. ``We have a young team, and I'm more concerned with us getting better rather than wins and losses.''

This victory was big, though. It left Oklahoma 14-4 overall, 3-3 in the Big 12. The Sooners took advantage of poor free throw shooting by Kansas State to win there on Saturday night, and this time Texas did its part to help the Sooners.

Coach Rick Barnes didn't seem upset by the performance, even though the Longhorns (15-4, 4-2) shot below 38 percent from the field for the sixth time in eight games.

``I didn't think we looked like a team standing around looking for one or two guys on the offensive end,'' Barnes said. ``We had chances.

``There's one thing I know about our basketball team _ we're going to give a great physical effort for 40 minutes. Now we've got to do it mentally.''

The Longhorns had an eight-minute stretch in the first half when they scored just one basket, and Oklahoma outscored them 13-3. But Texas used five 3-pointers to stay within range and only trailed 32-29 at halftime.

J.R. Raymond, who had his second straight solid game with 21 points, hit two 3-pointers in the first 3 1/2 minutes of the second half, and the second one gave Oklahoma its biggest lead, 45-34.

Darren Kelly then scored five points in a 12-2 run that got Texas within 47-46, but that was as close as the Longhorns would get.

An 8-0 spurt pushed the Sooner lead to 55-46. Texas closed to within three points three times after that, the final time 71-68. But they crippled themselves by missing over and over again from the foul line.

Oklahoma didn't exactly slam the door on the Longhorns. With the score 72-68, Hollis Price had a chance to widen the lead with two free throws. He missed both, but stole the ball back from Maurice Evans, essentially ending the Longhorns' chances.

``I think between Texas, Oklahoma and the referees, we almost screwed up a pretty good 38 minutes of basketball,'' Sampson said. ``That last two minutes was, ugh _ Hollis with his free throws, them with theirs.

``But I don't want the last two minutes to cloud what we did. We really played well for 38 minutes.''

For Texas, Kelly scored 10 on 3-of-13 shooting. Maurice Evans needed 15 shots to score 15 points. Chris Owens, tied for the league lead with six double-doubles, didn't score until the second half. He wound up with seven points and three rebounds, and fouled out in the final two minutes.

``Even with all that, if we make some free throws, who knows what might happen?'' Barnes said.

``We had great effort and gave ourselves a chance. We just couldn't capitalize.''