On New Year’s Day, Texas head coach Chris Beard told the media that one of his goals is to make sure his team makes more free throws than the opposing team even attempts.

However, the No. 14 Texas Longhorns failed to meet their objective in a 64-51 loss to the Oklahoma State on Saturday.

The Cowboys made 16 of 23 free throw attempts while the Longhorns only had seven, heavily affecting what was a much closer game than the final scoreline suggests.

Oklahoma State has now won the last five out of six matchups with Texas, with its only loss coming in the 2021 Big 12 championship game.

Although Saturday’s score was only a two-point margin at times, the Longhorns failed to win in Stillwater after evident offensive struggles.

The Cowboys started strong, jumping out to a 5-0 lead to open the game, and Texas was never able to catch up. At the end of the half, sophomore guard Devin Askew made a much-needed three point shot to cut the Cowboy’s lead to 30-28 at halftime, but the Longhorns did not make the right adjustments in the second half.

Usual heavy hitters like senior guard Marcus Carr were never able to really get going. The 2020-2021 All-Big Ten team member ended the afternoon with only four points. In his last two games, Carr scored 20 points against West Virginia and 19 points against Kansas State.

But much of Carr’s struggles can be attributed to Oklahoma State being prepared to take him on.

“We just wanted to limit him and make somebody else make that play,” junior guard Keylan Boone said.

The absence of junior forward Tre Mitchell also hindered the Texas offense. The UMass transfer did not travel with the team due to COVID-19 health and safety protocols.

Texas head coach Chris Beard acknowledged his team’s shortcomings after the game.

“We don’t say this often with our teams, but we’ll own it when it’s true,” Beard said. “The more aggressive team won tonight.”

With the most challenging part of Texas’ schedule coming up in less than a month, the team must be able to keep the pressure on its opponents while playing a much better offense.

Texas’ three-point percentage was 27%, while Oklahoma State shot 47% from three. The Cowboys were also able to capitalize off of Texas’ turnovers, netting 18 points off of turnovers.

True to Beard’s statement, Oklahoma State outplayed Texas in just about every facet of the game on Saturday. The biggest gap for the Longhorns is still the offense, specifically being able to make a better shot selection and come to a decision before the shot clock runs out.

The Longhorns have some time to think about Saturday’s loss and how to improve from it before the Oklahoma Sooners pay a visit to the Erwin Center on Tuesday night.

Texas is now 12–3 on the season and 2–1 in conference play.