OU basketball outlasts Arkansas en route to second straight SEC win

On January 26, 2025By Littum

OU won its first true road game of the season.

The Before defeated Arkansas 65-62 Saturday in front of an expected sellout crowd of 19,200 at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville, Arkansas. With the win, OU recorded its second straight victory after an 0-4 start in SEC play.

The win is a Quad 1 victory, the Sooners’ fourth of the season. Jalon Moore hit a dunk with 0.7 seconds left to seal the win.

“We’re chasing,” coach Porter Moser told OU’s in-house radio postgame. “There are 320 teams that are a little out, then there are 15 to 20 that are already in, then there are another 25 to 30 that are chasing. We are chasing. Everyone contributed, there was toughness and execution.”

Moser is now 3-1 against the Razorbacks at OU. Entering the contest, Arkansas was 9-2 at home this season.

Before Saturday, Arkansas was 9-0 this season when holding opponents under 70 points.

True freshman guard Jeremiah Fears led the Sooners with 16 points on 4-for-8 shooting and just two turnovers. Arkansas’ Johnell Davis finished with 18 points.

“He’s just one of those kids where you can tell you don’t think he was 16,” Moser said. “He can just score the ball … We had a lot of confidence in him down the stretch and I thought he was big.”

True freshman guard Dayton Forsythe, who had been a spark off the bench the past two games for OU, played just three minutes.

The Sooners turned the ball over 13 times.

Razorbacks guard Boogie Fland, one of the nation’s top freshmen, did not participate in the contest after undergoing surgery to repair the ulnar collateral ligament in his right thumb. He will reportedly miss the rest of the season.

Here are three takeaways from the Sooners’ win:

After running an efficient offense and scoring 35 points in the first half, OU played with little rhythm in the second.

In addition to its nine second-half turnovers, Oklahoma scored 30 points. All eight of their second-half makes were dunks or layups.

However, the Sooners made winning plays, diving on the floor for loose balls and holding Arkansas to zero points in the final 2:13. OU outrebounded Arkansas 35-29.

“We just tried to pay super hard, not leave our feet and get caught in the air,” Moser said. “We had to do everything we could to get our hands on the ball and get that last rebound, and we did.”

Moore has been a second-half player all season, scoring 13 points on 6-for-14 shooting.

The Sooners endured a stretch where they scored just 11 points in 14 minutes, but battled back.

Arkansas gained momentum after Zvonimir Ivisic drilled a 3-pointer with 10:06 left to give the Razorbacks their biggest lead. But their sloppy play late gave the momentum back.

“It was great to go out there and get that win,” Moore said after the game. “And the last play, of course, with the dunk to seal the game.”

Up by four with no time left in the first half, Sam Godwin made two free throws.

Godwin’s hard miss summed up OU’s game to end the first half.

“They were a little more aggressive,” guard Duke Miles said after the game. “When we started in the beginning, we were more aggressive and then they pushed back. We had to respond and that’s what we did.”

The Sooners opened the contest with 3s, including three early makes by Brycen Goodine, two by Glenn Taylor Jr. and one from Fears and Luke Northweather. OU’s offense stalled and it finished the half shooting 42% from the field.

Moser said in his pregame radio interview that rebounding was the key to the game. The Sooners were plus-8 in rebound margin early in the first half, but led by just one at halftime.

After exploding for 34 points in a home loss to Texas A&M on Jan. 8, Goodine has seen his role increase.

He has started OU’s past three games, but struggled to repeat his rare outing against the Aggies. But when Goodine is on, he’s on.

He was red-hot from 3 in the first half, nailing three of his four attempts and leading OU in scoring.

Goodine got into foul trouble, committed four and finished with nine points on 3-for-6 shooting.

OU has a daunting stretch ahead, which starts at Texas A&M at 8:00 PM on Tuesday. The game will be broadcast on the SEC Network.

The Aggies led Texas by 22 in the second half Saturday before falling 70-69.

Each of OU’s next five opponents are ranked or received votes in this week’s AP poll. Ten of the Sooners’ last 12 games are against teams in this week’s AP top 25.

In ESPN’s latest bracketology update Friday, OU was a No. 10 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

“It’s the toughest league in the country,” Moore said. “Any chance to get a road win in this league is very important because it’s a quality win. We have some big games coming up next week.”