Oklahoma Blows Late Lead to Texas as Sooners Drop Eighth Game in a Row

NORMAN — The feeling of defeat Saturday was nothing new for Oklahoma.

Despite being in a good position to win in the second half, the Sooners lost 79-69 to Texas in the Red River Rivalry. The loss marks Oklahoma’s eighth in a row, and it is one of the several in the stretch where the Sooners saw a late lead evaporate.

OU fell to 11-11 overall and 1-8 in SEC play with the loss, while Texas improved to 13-9 and 4-5.

Here are three takeaways from the game:

Longhorns catch fire in the second half

The Sooners had control early, as they led 23-9 after only a few minutes of play.

Texas, though, didn’t go away. The Longhorns played better basketball in the last few minutes of the first half to make the score 33-30 in favor of OU at halftime.

And in the second half, the Longhorns didn’t miss very often.

Texas outscored OU 49-36 in the game’s final 20 minutes. The Longhorns went on a 15-4 run in the middle portion of the second half, turning a six-point Oklahoma lead into a five-point Texas lead.

The Longhorns shot 75 percent from the floor in the second half. They also went 38.1 percent on 3-pointers and connected on 73.3 percent of their free-throw attempts in the final 20 minutes.

Lot of three-point attempts for OU

Oklahoma shot the three-ball early and often on Saturday.

The Sooners attempted 28 3-pointers against the Longhorns. Of their 28 attempts, nine went in, giving them a 32.1-percent clip from beyond the three-point line.

Five different Sooners made at least one 3-pointer, and Xzayvier Brown and Nijel Pack each logged three triples.

Early in the game, Pack was OU’s hottest shooter from deep. He finished the game with a team-high 23 points and went 3-of-8 on 3-pointers.

The guard, who transferred to OU from Miami ahead of the 2025-26 season, has now shot fairly well in three consecutive games after a three-game slump that saw him go 3-of-19 on 3-pointers.

Pack entered the game against Texas averaging 16 points per game while shooting 43 percent from deep.

Ultimately, though, the Sooners' efforts from deep didn't equate to a victory.

The skid continues

This might sound familiar, but the Sooners were in a good position to end their slide against Texas.

But that didn’t happen.

Instead, Oklahoma saw its losing streak extend to eight games at the hands of its arch rival. The Sooners will end January with only one win, its 86-70 victory over Ole Miss to begin SEC play.

The Sooners now stand alone at the bottom of the SEC standings, as LSU defeated South Carolina on Saturday to improve to 2-7.

Oklahoma entered the Texas game ranked No. 75 in the NET rankings, which put them 12th out of the SEC’s members.

Next up, Oklahoma will face Kentucky in Lexington on Wednesday before battling Vanderbilt on the road Saturday.