Sooners Drop Back-To-Back Games For First Time After Upset Loss At Texas Tech

For the first time in school history Texas Tech (16-9) has beaten three straight top-25 teams after taking down No. 3 Oklahoma 65-63 on Wednesday night. The Red Raiders had beaten Iowa State and Baylor in its two previous games leading up to the OU matchup.

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This is the first time this season OU (20-5) has lost back-to-back games and really hurts the Sooners’ chances of winning the Big 12 regular season title.  

Lon Kruger’s Sooners held a four-point lead with 2:26 left in the game, but Tubby Smith’s Red Raiders weren’t done fighting. Toddrick Gotcher drained a corner three-pointer in front of the Tech bench to bring his team within one point, and then Texas Tech took the lead after Keenan Evans stole an errant Isaiah Cousins’ pass and converted a fast-break layup on the other end.

Buddy Hield had a chance to get OU back on top, but his baseline jumper failed to draw iron and Texas Tech held a 62-61 lead and possession with 1:42 left in the game, but OU didn’t get the ball back until there were 30 seconds left. The Red Raiders missed two shots after running down the shot clock but were able to grab the offensive rebound off both misses, and eventually made both free throws after OU was forced to foul in order to get the ball back.

After a made Woodard layup and a Tech missed free throw, OU had a chance with 19 seconds left facing a two-point deficit, but Ryan Spangler missed a point blank layup that would’ve tied the game and the Red Raiders hauled in the rebound to seal their biggest win of the season.

Oklahoma only recorded six assists in the loss, which is nearly 10 less than their average on the season and the Sooners’ second unit was outscored 25-to-7 by the Texas Tech bench.

Despite the loss, junior guard Jordan Woodard was able to break out of his recent shooting slump by recording 25 points on 7-of-14 shooting. Hield notched 16 points, but only scored four points after intermission.

One of OU’s struggles as of late is getting both Woodard and Cousins to play well at the same time. Woodard broke out of his slump on Wednesday, but Cousins only scored 10 points and wasn’t his normal self on offense. Big man Khadeem Lattin was a non-factor with zero points and zero blocks, while only recording three rebounds. Lattin’s poor performance came as somewhat of a surprise after he totaled eight blocks the last time these two teams met.

Aaron Ross led Tech in scoring with 17 points off the bench while Evans scored 14 of his own.

OU will be back in action at West Virginia on Saturday at 3 p.m.