OU handles the Horns

FINAL SCORE: Oklahoma 70 â€“ Texas 49

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1st Half: OU 33 â€“ Texas 14

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[*]Texas started Prince Ibeh for the 2nd consecutive game, despite his having a relatively low impact on the game in Lubbock. This is the halfway point of the season â€“ itâ€™s time for Barnes to settle in to a starting 5 and regular rotation.

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[*]Texas opened 1-12 from the floor before Isaiah Taylor hit a 3-pointer. With six points, Texas is ice cold early. The defensive intensity is lacking, and the team has turned it over 6 times. In other words, they played their ugliest 10 minutes of the season.

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[*]By the 7:29 mark, Texas already had eight turnovers, including more than 1 per minute over the last 4:30.

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[*]Texas shot 6-30 (20%) in the first half (2-11 on 3-pointers). Their cold shooting leaked into everything theyâ€™re doing on the floor. They even let an average rebounding team outrebound them in the first 20 minutes.

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2nd Half: Oklahoma 37 â€“ Texas 35

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[*]The Horns actually ran a set offensive play that was effective to open the second half. Seeing Jonathan Holmes curl off a screen and hit a jumper at the elbow was a welcome sight.

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[*]Javan Felix is still a double-edged sword â€“ in his third year, heâ€™s still throwing up jumpers without any apparent feel for what Texas is trying to do offensively. But heâ€™s the only one on the team that actively looks to score on a night when shots arenâ€™t falling.

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[*]Seeing the Sooners out-hustle the Horns for every loose ball was more disconcerting than the offense.

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[*]Texas is 2 of their last 11 shooting at the 5:00 mark. They never found any resemblance of their stroke. Itâ€™s not that they had bad shots all night â€“ it was getting open looks to fall.

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[*]The good news is that Texas made twice as many shots in the second half as they did in the first half. The bad news is they still only made 12.

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Top takeaways

1. Early in the first half, the Sooners crashed the paint on defense and crowded the Horns. The result was Texas abandoning the interior and settling for jumpers. Once the the team started attacking the paint late in the half, they finally started scoring.

2. Everyone is going to overrate OU and discount Texas after this performance. Neither will prove to be correct over an extended period.

The stat story‘”

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[*]Oklahoma shot 41.7% for the game. Thatâ€™s a fairly efficient night for their offensive talent.

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[*]TaShawn Thomas ended with a double-double (12-11).

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[*]5 Sooners finished in double figures and Ryan Spangler chipped in 9 more.

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[*]Texas guards took 34 of the Hornsâ€™ 60 shots (57%). Thatâ€™s backwards for this team.

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[*]OU had more points in the paint that Texas, and the Horns took nearly double the three pointers that OU attempted. Thatâ€™s backwards.

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Looking ahead

Texas only has two games in the next 12 days (at Oklahoma State on 1/10, and WVU on 1/17). After tonightâ€™s performance a week of hard practices is very timely.