Brycen Goodine scored 14 points to lead a balanced Oklahoma attack as the Sooners defeated rival Texas 76-72 on Saturday in the teams’ regular-season Southeastern Conference finale in Austin, Texas.
Both the Sooners (19-12, 6-12 SEC) and the Longhorns (17-14, 6-12) are considered on the bubble for an NCAA Tournament bid heading into the SEC Championship, which begins on Wednesday in Nashville.
Texas, the 13th seed, will play 12th-seeded Vanderbilt in the opening round of the conference tourney while 14th-seeded Oklahoma will battle No. 11 Georgia.
After a back and forth second half, a pair of free throws from freshman phenom Jeremiah Fears with 3:29 left put the Sooners in front by a point, and Duke Miles’ three-point play with 2:42 remaining pushed the margin to 70-66. Texas responded with a free throw by Arthur Kaluma that was immediately countered by a 3-pointer by Goodine with 2:11 left.
Jordan Pope’s layup with 1:11 to play cut Texas’ deficit to four points but Oklahoma held on, getting two free throws from Fears with 16.6 seconds left. Pope’s 3-pointer with 6.2 seconds remaining was only window dressing as the Sooners snapped an eight-game losing streak to Texas.
Fears added 13 points, with Miles scoring 11 and Glenn Taylor Jr., Luke Northweather and Jalen Moore hitting for 10 points each.
Pope led all scorers with 21 points while Tramon Mark and Kaluma added 12 each and Julian Larry had 10 for the Longhorns. Freshman Tre Johnson, the SEC’s leading scorer, finished with a career-low seven points while missing all 14 of his shots from the floor.
Oklahoma used an early 7-0 run to rush to a 7-3 lead after a pair of free throws by Moore two minutes into the game. The Longhorns swung back and moved to a 21-15 advantage after Larry’s free throws with 10:34 to play in the half.
The Sooners answered, forging a 9-2 spurt capped by a dunk by Taylor to go up 24-23 with 7:27 remaining. There were 12 ties and 13 lead changes before the game went to the break tied at 37-37.
Pope led Texas with 12 points before halftime. Taylor paced the Sooners with 10 points while hitting 4 of 5 of his field-goal attempts in the first half.
–Field Level Media
