Oklahoma Unable to Contain Tennessee’s Offense in Loss to Volunteers

The Sooners turned the ball over too many times early, and they were never able to claw back into Wednesday's game against Tennessee.

Oklahoma Sooners head coach Porter Moser speaks with guard Nijel Pack (9) during the first half against the Tennessee Volunteers at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center. | Randy Sartin-Imagn Images

Oklahoma had a chance to generate serious momentum on Wednesday, but the Sooners squandered their opportunity.

OU fell 89-66 to Tennessee in Knoxville, breaking the Sooners’ two-game winning streak. Oklahoma has now lost 10 of its last 12 contests.

With the loss, the Sooners are 13-13 overall and 3-10 in SEC play. The Volunteers improved to 19-7 and 9-4 with the win.

Here are three takeaways from the game:

Early turnovers lead to halftime deficit

All in all, plenty went well for Oklahoma in the first half.

The Sooners posted a strong 52-percent clip from the field and made five 3-pointers. They also saw seven different players show up in the scoring column.

But OU’s ball control issues allowed Tennessee to go to the locker room with a somewhat comfortable lead.

The Sooners turned the ball over nine times over the first 20 minutes. Off of those turnovers, Tennessee scored 18 points.

The Volunteers went into halftime with a nine-point lead, and if not for such a high number of turnovers, the Sooners likely would have been closer.

Sooners struggle to contain Vols forward

Tennessee forward Nate Ament has built a reputation as one of the SEC’s best players, and he showed why against Oklahoma.

A freshman, Ament finished Wednesday’s game with 29 points on 9-of-17 shooting. He scored 17 of his 29 points in the second half, helping the Volunteers earn their 23-point win.

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Ament also hit three of his seven attempts on 3-pointers. In addition to his scoring numbers, Ament logged six rebounds, three assists, a steal and a block.

Ament’s 29 points were a game-high, while OU guard Nijel Pack led the Sooners with 20 points. 

Pack shot 7-of-9 from the field and made four of his five attempts from deep. Tae Davis and Derrion Reid also finished in double figures, recording 12 and 10 points, respectively.

OU clinches losing conference record

With 10 SEC losses, the Sooners will now finish the 2025-26 season with a losing conference record — even if they win all five of their final regular-season games.

Oklahoma seemed to be trending in the right direction, as they defeated No. 15 Vanderbilt and Georgia after losing nine games in a row. The Sooners climbed from No. 85 to No. 68 in the NET rankings — used heavily by the NCAA Tournament selection committee — following their back-to-back victories.

Oklahoma will host Texas A&M on Saturday, with tipoff scheduled for 7:30 p.m. The Sooners will honor program-great Buddy Hield at halftime.

After that, the Sooners will play games against Auburn, LSU, Missouri and Texas to close out the regular season.