Oklahoma’s Second Half Rally Falls Short Against No. 14 Texas Tech

KANSAS CITY — For about seven minutes, it looked like Porter Moser had one more trick in his back pocket.

After falling behind by as many as 14 points to the No. 14-ranked Texas Tech Red Raiders, the Oklahoma Sooners came roaring back.

Holding Texas Tech scoreless for 7:42 of game time, OU chipped away at the deficit, going on a 14-0 run to take a three point lead in the second half of the Big 12 Tournament semifinal from Kansas City.

But the Sooners ended up one free throw short of sending the game to overtime.

With seven seconds left in the game, Jacob Groves missed a free throw to tie the contest. Oklahoma was able to corral the rebound after it was tipped into the backcourt, but Umoja Gibson was stripped of the ball before he could put up a potential game-winning shot.

“(I was) just trying to get downhill and attack the defense,” Gibson said of the final seconds. “Obviously I tripped up and fell, but ultimate goal was get down the hill and try to get a clean basket.”

Texas Tech took OU’s best shot and stayed on its feet, winning the contest 56-55 to advance to face the No. 6 Kansas Jayhawks on Saturday night.

“I can’t say enough about this group staying together through adversity, through a tough injury, through some losses,” Moser said after the game. “I can’t say enough about how they stuck together, fought to get better, fought to practice, fought to stay positive, blocked out outside noise, and controlled what they could control.

“… The way we played defense in the second half and what we did against their defense trying to move the ball, I can’t say enough about this group’s resiliency and how good of a group this is and how much of an NCAA tournament team this is.”

The loss snapped a crucial four-game OU winning streak which had propelled the Sooners firmly back onto the NCAA Tournament bubble.

Now sitting at 18-15 overall on the year, Oklahoma’s fate rests in the hands of the selection committee to see if Thursday’s victory over the No. 3 Baylor Bears was enough to sneak the Sooners into the Big Dance.

Gibson and Jordan Goldwire did their best to drag their team all the way back into the game, as the senior duo combined to score 19 of Oklahoma’s 29 second half points in the loss.

Goldwire especially shouldered a lot of the load on Friday night. The senior transfer pushed himself to the limit, and actually missed the closing moments of the game due to muscle cramping.

“All season long we felt we needed to give him breaks,” said Moser. “But we had to stay old in this tournament. He played his tail off. He played so hard.

“He’s asked to do so much as the primary ball handler. He’s asked to do so much defensively. He literally gave everything he had. For him to cramp up and not be able to get in there, it killed him.

“Think about it. He went from extreme exhaustion two nights ago, but we’re asking him to do a lot on both ends, on both ends. I can’t say enough about his heart and how hard he played.”

As the Sooners clawed their way back into the game, they leaned on their defense to try and turn the tide.

After the Red Raiders shot 65 percent from the field in the first half, but shot just 6-of-22 from the floor over the final 20 minutes.

While the Sooners staged their comeback, Gibson said the message to the team was simple in the huddle.

MBB - Umoja Gibson, 2022 Big 12 Tournament — Umoja Gibson

Denny Medey/Big 12 Conference

“Keep chipping off, keep chipping off possession by possession,” Gibson said. “That’s what Coach Moser preaches to us all the time. You know, in the huddle we were trying to be more together and more as a unit.

“We failed, but we’re going to keep pushing.”

Ultimately, OU struggled to unlock one of the nation’s best defenses, as the Sooners combined to shoot 38 percent from the field and 5-of-19 from deep.

Three Oklahoma players finished scoring in double figures, as Gibson led the way with 16 points.

Goldwire was OU’s second-leading scorer, adding 14 points on 5-of-13 shooting, but he appeared to fall victim to muscle cramps toward the end of the game and he was unable to get on the floor for the final 30 seconds of the game.

Jalen Hill added 13 points and five rebounds round out the Sooner scoring attack.

All eyes for the Sooners now turn to Selection Sunday, where Oklahoma will learn its postseason fate.

Entering the night, ESPN bracket expert Joe Lunardi had OU slotted as one of the last four teams out of the NCAA Tournament.

Moser has plenty of tournament experience himself, though, and he said after the game he thinks his team clearly deserves to be in the field come Sunday.

“This group has the DNA of an NCAA Tournament team,” he said. “They’re resilient. They’ve stayed together and we’ve won these games late. We fell short today against an elite team by one.”

The 68-team tournament field will be revealed on Sunday at 5 p.m. on CBS.

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