OU basketball falls short vs Georgia as Sooners drop to 0-3 in SEC play

Posted by author January 11, 2025 Basketball

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OU dropped its third consecutive game on Saturday.

The No. 16 Sooners fell to Georgia 72-62 at a packed Stegeman Coliseum in Athens, Georgia, to drop to 0-3 to start SEC play. The Bulldogs have won 13 consecutive games at home.

Senior forward Jalon Moore led OU with 17 points and nine rebounds.

“(We’ve got to) stay together,” Moore told OU’s in-house radio postgame. “Stay together and get back in the gym, see what we need to work on. Take what we did good in this game, take what we did bad in this game, learn from it and grow from it and use that to go beat Texas.”

Oklahoma shot 38% from the field and 7 for 27 from 3-point range. The Bulldogs outscored the Sooners 39-26 in the second half.

Brycen Goodine, who scored 34 points and made nine of his 11 3-point attempts in OU’s loss to Texas A&M on Wednesday, finished with three points on 1-for-7 shooting from deep.

OU started the same five players for the 16th consecutive game. However, Sam Godwin finished with two points in just 14 minutes, while Mohamed Wague had his best game in a Sooners uniform, scoring 10 points in 16 minutes.

Wague has seen an increase in playing time as the Sooners have faced taller forwards during conference play. Based on lineup metrics entering Saturday’s contest by EvanMiya.com, OU was one of eight notable teams not utilizing its best lineup. The Sooners’ best lineup includes Wague, according to their analytics.

Oklahoma’s loss came in front of former star guard Trae Young, whose game with the Atlanta Hawks initially scheduled for Saturday was postponed due to weather. Young sat behind the Sooners’ bench with his son.

Here are three takeaways from the Sooners’ loss:

OU finished with over four times less free-throw attempts than Georgia.

The Bulldogs out-hustled the Sooners for most of the game, including on the boards and around the rim. Georgia made 27 of its 37 free throw attempts, while OU made 7 of 9.

OU coach Porter Moser appeared close to receiving a technical foul on multiple occasions after fouls called against the Sooners on Saturday.

“With four minutes left, it was still a 20 free throw discrepancy,” Moser said. “So disappointed in that and I just really don’t want to comment any further on that. … It’s just unreal.”

Moore picked up a technical after exchanging words with Georgia’s Somto Cyril and fouled out with five fouls with 26.5 seconds remaining.

Seven Sooners finished with three or more personal fouls.

OU finished with 28 fouls. Georgia committed just 16.

“Keep going strong and don’t try to focus on the refs,” Moore said of what the Sooners can improve on moving forward. “They shot 28 more free throws than we did but you’ve still gotta keep going strong to the basket.”

Kobe Elvis and Duke Miles have fed off each other all season.

That continued Saturday as the two veteran guards combined for 28 points and four 3s. Elvis finished with 14 points on 6-of-11 shooting, while Miles dropped 14 points with five makes on 11 attempts from the field.

Elvis also dished five assists.

Despite the free-throw discrepancy throughout the game, Elvis and Miles kept Oklahoma in it until the end and their roles have become that much more important due to Jeremiah Fears’ struggles.

Fears is in a slump.

The true freshman guard, who reclassified to the 2024 class in order to play for the Sooners this season, averaged 18.1 points, 4.5 assists and 2.2 steals per game in 13 non-conference games. He’s averaging 10.3 points in three SEC games.

Fears is particularly struggling in the first half of conference games. He scored one point in the first half of OU’s first SEC contest at Alabama, two against Texas A&M and two Saturday against Georgia.

“He’s pressing,” Moser said. “I mean, he wants to do so well right now, and he’s going through it. And like anybody, he’s got to fight through it. We’ve got to help him fight through it. … We need him to get back on track.”

In the previous two games, Fears had bounced back stronger in the second halves. Fears committed a key turnover with a little over a minute remaining with the Sooners down six, allowing Georgia to kill more time and knock down a free throw, while Fears was benched.

Fears finished Saturday’s loss with two points on 1-for-11 shooting, including 0 for 4 from deep in 22 minutes.

Fears spent significant time on the bench in the second half, playing just six minutes. Saturday marked the first game of Fears’ collegiate career where he didn’t score in double figures.

Next, the Sooners will try to get back in the win column when they face rival Texas at 9 p.m. Wednesday at Lloyd Noble Center on SEC Network. The Longhorns (11-5, 0-3 SEC) fell to No. 1 Tennessee on Saturday.

Oklahoma vs Georgia score updates

What channel is Oklahoma vs Georgia on today?

TV channel: ESPN2

Livestream: ESPN+ (here’s how to stream it live)

Oklahoma vs Georgia will be broadcast on ESPN2. It can also be streamed on ESPN+.

What time does OU play today? Oklahoma vs Georgia time

Date: Saturday, Jan. 11
Start time: 5 p.m. CT

The Oklahoma vs Georgia game starts at 5 p.m. from Stegeman Coliseum in Athens, Georgia.

Oklahoma men’s basketball schedule 2024

All times are Central Standard Time (CST)

Monday, Nov. 4: Oklahoma 93, Lindenwood 60
Monday, Nov. 11: Oklahoma 73, Northwestern State 57
Saturday, Nov. 16: Oklahoma 85, Stetson 64
Thursday, Nov. 21: Oklahoma 84, East Texas A&M 56
Wednesday, Nov. 27: Oklahoma 79, Providence 77
Thursday, Nov. 28: Oklahoma 82, Arizona 77
Friday, Nov. 29: Oklahoma 69, Louisville 64
Tuesday, Dec. 3: Oklahoma 76, Georgia Tech 61
Saturday, Dec. 7: Oklahoma 94, Alcorn State 78
Saturday, Dec. 14: Oklahoma 80, Oklahoma State 65
Wednesday, Dec. 18: Oklahoma 87, Michigan 86
Sunday, Dec. 22: Oklahoma 89, Central Arkansas 66
Sunday, Dec. 29: Oklahoma 89, Prairie View A&M 67
Saturday, Jan. 4: Alabama 107, Oklahoma 79
Wednesday, Jan. 8: Texas A&M 80, Oklahoma 78
Saturday, Jan. 11: at Georgia at 5 p.m. (ESPN2)
Wednesday, Jan. 15: vs. Texas at 9 p.m. (SEC Network)
Saturday, Jan. 18: vs. South Carolina at TBD (ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU)
Saturday, Jan. 25: at Arkansas at 7:30 p.m. (ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU)
Tuesday, Jan. 28: at Texas A&M at 8 p.m. (SEC Network)
Saturday, Feb. 1: Vanderbilt at 2:30 p.m. (SEC Network)
Tuesday, Feb. 4: at Auburn at 8 p.m. (SEC Network)
Saturday, Feb. 8: vs. Tennessee at 11 a.m. (ESPN or ESPN2)
Wednesday, Feb. 12: at Missouri at 8 p.m. (SEC Network)
Saturday, Feb. 15: vs. LSU at 5 p.m. (SEC Network)
Tuesday, Feb. 18: at Florida at 6 p.m. (ESPN2)
Saturday, Feb. 22: vs. Mississippi State at noon (SEC Network)
Wednesday, Feb. 26: vs. Kentucky at 8 p.m. (SEC Network)
Saturday, March 1: at Ole Miss at 1 p.m. (ESPN or ESPN2)
Wednesday, March 5: vs. Missouri at 7 p.m. (SEC Network+)
Saturday, March 8: at Texas at 7 p.m. (SEC Network)

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