OU basketball suffers ultimate gut-punch, collapse as skid moves to four games

A 20 seconds no OU basketball fan is going to forget for a long time. And not for the good reason. A monumental collapse that has everybody wondering what is going on.

OU was up 79-74 with 20 seconds left only to lose 82-79 to visiting LSU on Saturday evening at the Lloyd Noble Center.

You have to make the smart basketball plays, and OU failed when it mattered most. The Sooners allowed a four-point play out of a timeout to trim the lead to 79-78.

Then Jalon Moore was caught in the corner and turned the ball over. LSU was able to convert and get an and-1 on top of it.

It was 81-79 with eight seconds left. Freshman Jeremiah Fears drove the length of the court but missed a tough jumper in the lane.

Game. Set. Match. How?

This is the one that stings, period. You cannot lose at home to LSU. And you definitely cannot lose in the manner in which the Sooners did.

OU had a 13-point lead multiple times in the second half but couldn’t put the Tigers away. It didn’t matter that LSU missed 13 free throws, negated a bit by the Tigers draining 11 3-pointers.

It takes away a gutsy effort by OU in the final seven minutes. After giving up the lead and trailing 63-59, OU responded like you’re supposed to do.

The Jalon Moore free throws to make it 79-74 should have been enough. But on this night, they simply weren’t.

Questions galore for head coach Porter Moser. His future and where this team goes the rest of this season.

Moore had 14 points. Jeremiah Fears scored 12 of his 15 points in the second half, and Duke Miles added 12 points.

Up next

Here comes the next gauntlet. Five straight games against ranked opponents, at least as of this week. OU (16-9, 3-9) heads to Gainesville to take on Florida. The Gators are easily one of the best teams in the country and would be a No. 1 seed if the tournament began now. OU is finally the early game, too, during the mid-week, tipping off at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

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