OU Basketball: Oklahoma Outmatched as Sooners Fall 70-52 to No. 4 Tennessee

Tennessee shot 69.2% from the field and made seven 3-pointers in the first half against OU, putting the Sooners in a deep hole early.

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NORMAN — The effects of playing two top-five teams in the same week showed in the worst way for Oklahoma on Saturday.

The Sooners (16-7, 3-7 SEC) fell 70-52 to No. 4 Tennessee for their second loss in a row. The defeat comes five days after OU’s 98-70 loss to No. 1 Auburn on Tuesday.

"I don’t think enough guys that are capable brought everything they had today," OU coach Porter Moser said. "And you need multiple depth to play against that size and athleticism differential."

Here are three takeaways from the game:

Tennessee unstoppable in first

The Volunteers’ high-powered offense was too much for Oklahoma to handle early in the game.

Tennessee (20-4, 7-4) went to halftime shooting 69.2% from the field. The Volunteers also went 7-of-12 on 3-pointers, making their first five attempts.

What made the Vols so hard to stop early is how well they played in both the backcourt and the frontcourt.

Guard Chaz Lanier scored 13 first-half points and made three 3-pointers. Zakai Zeigler scored eight and logged seven assists, five of which came in the game’s first five minutes.

6-foot-10 forward Igor Milicic scored eight points and grabbed three rebounds.

Oklahoma’s offense, on the other hand, stalled out after the first few minutes. The Sooners went on a lengthy scoring drought after making four of their first five field-goal attempts.

Tennessee went to halftime leading 45-25.

Off night… for every Sooner

The struggles for OU weren’t the fault of just a couple players — they were team-wide.

Jalon Moore finished as the Sooners’ leading scorer with 12 points, and he did so on an inefficient 4-of-12 shooting day. Every Sooner who attempted three or more field goals finished with a shooting percentage below 50%.

OU Basketball: Oklahoma Hosts No. 4 Tennessee for Second Top-Five Game of Week

Oklahoma’s final point total of 52 was a new season low. The previous low was 62 points in a loss to Georgia in January.

"We’ve gone on runs in this building and gotten the energy in this building going," Moser said. "We could never get any energy going, couldn’t cause that because we couldn’t get a string of made shots."

OU’s rebounding numbers were fairly modest, too, with Tennessee winning that battle 35-21. 

And the Sooners didn’t have any luck in the second half stopping the Vols either. Tennessee finished the game shooting 60% from the field and made nine 3-pointers. Lanier and Zeigler led the game in scoring with 21 and 17 points, respectively.

One month left

Only a month remains in the regular season for Oklahoma, and the Sooners are firmly on the bubble.

With a 3-7 conference record, OU is 14th in the SEC standings. The league’s top 14 teams are all in the top 50 of the NET and expected to be considered for the NCAA Tournament.

To gain favor from the committee over some of the other SEC bubble teams, the Sooners need wins — and they need them quickly.

Oklahoma’s next test is Wednesday against No. 15 Missouri on the road. It’s the first of eight regular-season games left before the SEC Tournament.

Six of the Sooners’ final eight foes are currently ranked in the AP Top 25.

"We’re in position to be in position," Moser said. "That’s the thing; it takes one game to turn it. One game, you win, with our schedule can just throw a dart up there on an unbelievable resume win, but it’s not going to happen if we don’t collectively come back together and have this resiliency to fight through the tough parts of the game.”