OU Basketball: Three Takeaways from Oklahoma's Loss at Missouri

It was a familiar refrain for Oklahoma on Wednesday night.

The Sooners played old conference rival Missouri at Mizzou Arena. It was the 213th meeting all-time but, after a decade in different leagues, their first since 2021.

The Sooners also played their fifth consecutive ranked opponent — historically speaking, the toughest stretch in program history.

Finally, the Sooners suffered their third straight defeat and fourth in their last five games, a 82-58 loss to the Tigers, who won their sixth in a row at Mizzou Arena.

OU fell to 16-8 overall and 3-8 in SEC play, while Missouri improved to 18-6 and 7-4.

Porter Moser's squad is back home on Saturday against unranked LSU (12-11, 1-9). Tipoff is 5 p.m. at Lloyd Noble Center.

Here are three takeaways from Oklahoma’s latest defeat:

Exposing OU’s Weaknesses

The Sooners have been notoriously bad in low-post play in Southeastern Conference games, but this matchup showcased two perimeter-oriented teams.

Oklahoma stayed within striking distance early thanks to five offensive rebounds that led to eight second-chance points, but the Tigers started to stretch their lead midway through the first half by exposing two Sooner weaknesses: turnovers on offense, and huge gaps down low on defense.

Mizzou built a 19-11 lead at the 11:40 mark on a 6-0 run, part of a larger 10-3 burst that was fueled by back-to-back dunks by Josh Gray and Tamar Bates and an easy putback off a drive and three-point play by Mark Mitchell.

Meanwhile, the Sooners continued their alarming run of turnovers with three in the first four minutes and eight in the first 10 minutes, leading to eight Missouri points that built the Tigers’ lead to 21-11. OU finished the first half with 12 turnovers that led to 12 Missouri points.

The star of the first half, however, was Mitchell, who sealed Jeremiah Fears down low and easily turned and dunked on a simple entry pass for a 23-11 lead as part of his 19 first-half points — just four off his career high of 23.

OU’s offensive possessions in the opening part of the first half were simply disastrous: 4-of-18 shooting with eight turnovers in the first 10 minutes as the Tigers eventually built a 44-24 at halftime.

OU’s 24 points at halftime marked the Sooners’ lowest-scoring half of the season.

Ultimately, the 6-foot-9, 230-pound Mitchell, a transfer from Duke, was unstoppable against an OU team light in the post, finishing with a new career-high of 25 points on 6-of-12 shooting (13-of-18 from the free throw line). He scored his 1,000th and 1,001st career points in the first half on a mismatch down low with 6-2 guard Dayton Forsythe and a free throw, then closed the half with two more free throws with 2.6 seconds to play.

OU cut Mizzou's 20-point halftime lead to 15 in the early stages of the second half, but a three-point play by Mitchell on a fast-break dunk and free throw rebuilt the Tigers to a 61-40 advantage with 10:56 to play.

Oklahoma was led by Duke Miles, who finished with 18 points, while Jalon Moore scored 10 before fouling out.

Rivalry renewed

Oklahoma and Missouri were members of the same conference for 93 years before Mizzou jumped to the SEC in 2012.

Now with the Sooners in the SEC, they’re back together.

Even though Wednesday’s game was completely one-sided, OU leads the all-time series 115-98 and has won 16 of the last 26 meetings, including a nine-game winning streak from 1998-2002.

The Tigers are 61-29 against OU in Columbia and have now won seven straight over the Sooners, who fell to 0-6 in Mizzou Arena, which opened in 2004.

OU’s last win at MU came at the Hearnes Center in 2001, when Jameel Heywood hit a buzzer-beating follow shot in the lane for a 63-61 victory.

The teams meet again on March 5 in Norman, where OU is 65-22 the Tigers.

OU has played Missouri more than all but three programs: Oklahoma State (250 games), Kansas (227) and Kansas State (218), with Iowa State (212) just behind.

Breaking it all down

Missouri wasn't much of a deep threat until Caleb Grill buried back-to-back 3-pointers midway through the second half that swelled the Tigers' lead to 67-42. After a 9-0 run, that lead would grow to as many as 29 later in the second half. Grill finished the night with 15 points.

In addition to its massive advantage in the low post with Mitchell, Missouri held a decisive edge in other areas of the floor.

In the first half alone, Missouri shot 58 percent (14-of-24) from the field, while Oklahoma shot just 22 percent (7-of-32). For the game, OU shot 31 percent, Missouri 54.

Missouri dominated on points in the paint (40-24), points off turnovers (16-13) and fast break points (10-2).

Ironically, OU’s only real edge came in second chance points (13-4). The Sooners came into Wednesday 16th and dead last in the SEC in offensive rebounding (8.5 per game) and total rebounding (31.9).

In the first half, the Sooners had 10 offensive rebounds while Missouri had just one.