OU Basketball: Oklahoma Gives Away Stunning Home Loss to Struggling LSU

Oklahoma’s troubling basketball season reached a new low on Saturday — twice.

OU blew a 13-point second-half lead against an LSU team that came into Saturday’s action with just one conference win.

Then, after regaining a five-point lead with 24 seconds left, the Sooners botched it again as LSU’s red-hot Cam Carter scored seven unanswered points to pull the Tigers to an unlikely 82-79 stunner at Lloyd Noble Center in Norman.

It’s OU’s fourth consecutive loss — and its second such streak this calendar year.

“Very, very, very tough loss,” coach Porter Moser said. “My faith has always been the foundation, and sometimes you don’t know why you’re put in these positions — the Good Lord puts you in these positions. But the only thing I know how to do is to pour into these young men and teach them and show them how to be better and learn how to close out games.”

“We got into that tight situation, and we had a complete meltdown with that.

Carter finished with a game-high 29 points on 10-of-17 shooting, and Daimion Collins poured in 22 points on 8-of-10 shooting.

Oklahoma, the leading free throw shooting team in the SEC, made 21 of 24 free throws in the second half and seemed to have the game put away as they made 18 of their final 19 freebies and built a 79-74 lead in the final seconds.

But Carter buried a 3 and was fouled by Jalon Moore with 20.9 seconds, then made the free throw.

"Defensively, we’re in what we call a no-jump situation — no matter what, we’re not jumping," Moser said. "Contesting a shot, on a drive, it’s a no-jump situation. And we jumped, and fouled a 3-point shooter. We fouled, I think, four 3-point shooters. That’s just mental. It’s mental."

LSU predictably went to a full-court press on the inbounds pass, and the Sooners, with one timeout remaining, couldn’t get the ball in cleanly as Curtis Givens stole the basketball from Moore.

Givens handed off to Carter, who drove for an easy layup and a shocking 80-79 lead.

"On the last sequence, we’re up one, we had one timeout, we literally went over what we call our bypass shooter against the press," Moser said. "We flash Jalen and we cut/cut: we cut sideline, we cut middle, and have the three options. I was holding (the final timeout) in case we got in trouble.

" … We got the ball inbounds, and then three, -- we just stood. Jalen got trapped and (Jeremiah) Fears, we were on top of each other and we didn’t cut/cut. I’ll take it. We’ve just got have some leadership and understanding down the stretch."

“Jalon knew we had a timeout,” Moser said. “We just kind of hot-potatoed it. For us being disorganized, that’s on me. … That’s what I told everybody. If, right there, we got it in, Jalon was 8-for-8 from the foul line.

“We just literally froze and stood.”

OU had a shot at the win, but Fears’ driving attempt came off the rim and LSU rebounded and drew a foul with 0.7 seconds to play.

“We played in that last 24 seconds like, hoping not to lose,” Moser said.

The Sooners (16-9 overall, 3-9 in SEC) were seeking their first win since Feb. 1. Instead, they’ll face an incredibly challenging six-game finish with one of the toughest remaining schedules in the country.

Meanwhile LSU (13-12, 2-10) had lost seven in a row and hadn’t won a game since Jan. 14.

Fears led the Sooners with 15 points, while Moore scored 14 and Duke Miles 12.

While OU thrived in a choppy game with tremendous focus at the free throw line, the Sooners were equally abysmal at perimeter shooting, making just 3-of-18 (17 percent) from 3-point range.

OU went without a field goal for more than four minutes midway through the second half and hit a drought where the Sooners made just 2-of-10 shots. Meanwhile, LSU made 10-of-11 field goals during a 29-13 run, taking the Tigers from 13 down to a 62-59 lead.

The Sooners led by 10 in the first half and got explosive possessions early in the second half to quickly build their lead back to double digits. But it wouldn't hold up.

Oklahoma led for all but 15 seconds of the first half and built a 21-11 lead midway through. But LSU used a 15-6 run over a six-minute stretch to cut it to a one-point lead.

The Sooners hit just 2-of-11 from 3-point range in the opening half.

OU came in having lost three in a row and four of its last five games, with three straight blowouts to No. 1 Auburn, No. 4 Tennessee and No. 21 Missouri by an average of 23.3 points.

ESPN bracket guru Joe Lunardi said Saturday morning the Sooners were currently in the group of teams labeled “last four byes,” one rung ahead of “last four in” — which is where OU was last season when Porter Moser’s squad got left out of the field for the third year in row. Now OU faces a treacherous finishing run and the possibility of missing the tournament for a fourth consecutive season.

OU returns to action Tuesday at No. 3-ranked Florida (21-3, 8-3 SEC) with a 6 p.m. CT tipoff at O’Connell Center in Gainesville.

Still ahead are league games against Mississippi State, No. 15 Kentucky, No. 22 Ole Miss, No. 21 Missouri and Texas.

“We have a path. It’s our path. But it’s an attainable path. That’s the belief," Moser said. " … Our confidence right now is cracked, and we gotta get it back.”