Texas men’s basketball got its first-ever Southeastern Conference victory, traveling across the Red River to beat Oklahoma 77–73.
It had seemed like the program’s eighth consecutive win against the Sooners was over before it started. Texas went to the locker room at the half with a 16-point lead and extended that lead to 23 at the start of the second half.
Sooners fans around the stadium finished tying balloons together to form a snake that wrapped around the entire stadium, possibly out of boredom watching their team’s biggest rivals dominate at their court. But when the two ends were tied together, the crowd went wild.
The balloon snake the fans created seemed to choke Texas, making them play worse as the balloons were passed closer to the court. Oklahoma went on a 17–1 run over five minutes, flipping the script.
Unlike in the first half, in which Texas had good ball movement and Oklahoma turned over the ball 10 times, Texas had four turnovers in six minutes.
All of a sudden, it was a one-possession game.
But Texas junior guard Jordan Pope wasn’t going to let Oklahoma overtake his team.
Pope put the team on his back, scoring 13 straight points to fend off the Sooners on a hot streak. Out of the 34 points that Texas scored in the second half, Pope scored 19 of them. He finished the game leading in points with 27, making all six of his free throws.
Then, as Pope seemed to slow down, freshman guard Tre Johnson woke back up on offense, getting a jumper for two points.
In the first half, Johnson scored 10 points, finding creative ways to get the ball into the net. In one play, Johnson, who was double-teamed by Oklahoma, threw the ball over the two players’ hands over to Pope. Pope swung it around to graduate guard Tramon Mark, who made a three-pointer look easy.
But in the second half, the five-star recruit was mostly silent, scoring only six points.
The game was still close, within two possessions with a minute remaining. Oklahoma had picked up their shooting, trying to limit their mistakes.
“It’s probably (Oklahoma head coach Porter Moser’s) best team in my mind because they have a really good shooting team,” Texas head coach Rodney Terry said before the game. “They’ve made 10 threes in eight games this year, so they’re a big-time shooting team, (a) team that’s not going to beat themselves, a really good free-throw shooting team, a well-coached team.”
In the rivalry game, Oklahoma wasn’t at its best at taking threes, only making five out of 16 attempts. However, four out of those five were made in the second half.
Texas was the last to score. With the seconds ticking down, senior forward Arthur Kaluma threw the ball across the court like a baseball to Mark, who put it in the net.
The Longhorns can now say they won an SEC game. The Sooners, however, not yet.
Texas continues on the road, hoping to add another SEC win to their belt as they play against No. 5/4 Florida on Jan. 18.