On the last afternoon of 2022, the Oklahoma Sooners in a tightly contested game against the No. 6 ranked Texas Longhorns 70-69. It came down to the final moments, but ultimately, the Longhorns got more stops when it mattered most and iced the game on the free throw line.
Grant Sherfield led the way for the Sooners with 22 points on 9 of 19 shooting. His 16 first-half points paced the Sooners early. The Longhorns made adjustments in their off-ball help defense and did all they could to quiet Sherfield in the second half.
Oklahoma trailed much of the first half but kept the game close. A 12-1 run by Oklahoma leading into the under-four-minute TV timeout was the driving force to a 35-31 Sooners lead at halftime.
Texas guards began to assert their will in the second half. Marcus Carr had nine of his thirteen points in the second half. Texas forward Timmy Allen also scored 13 for the Longhorns.
In the second half, with so much of the Texas defense keyed in on Sherfield, other Sooners stepped up to keep them in the game. Jacob Groves had three of his five three-pointers in the second half. He finished with 17 points. Forward Jalen Hill chipped in 14 points and six rebounds.
Texas stymied Oklahoma’s offensive fluidity by taking Sherfield out of the game and cutting off driving lanes. That proved to be the difference in the one-point loss for the Sooners.
These rivals will meet again in February. Oklahoma falls to 9-4 on the season and will look to bounce back after the start of the new year with a home game against a gritty Iowa State squad on Wednesday, January 4 at the Lloyd Noble Center.
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