After Saturday’s loss to Oklahoma State, Texas head coach Chris Beard had a simple message about the team’s performance: “Victory is going to favor the more aggressive team.”

Tuesday night’s game proved Beard right.

No. 21 Texas looked much different against Oklahoma than on Saturday, with a 66-52 Red River rivalry win.

“There’s no denying these rivalry games are real,” Beard said. “We knew we were going to have to play one of our best games, and I think that’s what we did.”

Tuesday’s 14-point win was the largest margin of victory over Oklahoma since 2011, with the Longhorns’ combative play weighing in as a major factor.

One surefire sign of Texas’ aggressiveness came when senior guard Courtney Ramey snatched the ball out of a Sooner hand and drove down the court for a layup.

Also converting defense into offense, sixth-year guard Andrew Jones scored a career-high 22 points coupled with four steals. Three other Longhorns also scored in the double digits.

Just a couple days before, the Longhorns looked lethargic in a 64-51 loss to Oklahoma State. The team was not able to get to the free throw line until the second half and allowed the Cowboys to score off of its turnovers. Texas dropped seven spots in the latest AP poll because of its loss in Stillwater.

But it was clear the Longhorns learned from their mistakes.

To open the game, Texas forced a personal foul onto Oklahoma senior forward and leading scorer Tanner Groves, who the team held to just three points all night.

The transfer from Eastern Washington had been on a double-digit scoring streak since Dec. 1 and scored 16 points in a win over No. 15 Iowa State.

Texas wrote the narrative of the game by forcing 17 turnovers out of the Sooners. The Longhorns also stole the ball 11 times, compared to Oklahoma’s two steals.

“I thought Texas changed the dynamic,” said Oklahoma head coach Porter Moser.

As March inches closer and closer, the Longhorns’ identity is solidifying as a team that will not hesitate to grab the ball from their opponents’ hands and score.

The first Red River win of the season for Texas was a sigh of relief after Saturday’s loss. The game also offered another glimpse at what the Longhorns will look like as the toughest part of its schedule looms. Texas travels to Ames on Saturday to face Iowa State.