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OU basketball cannot stop bleeding, thumped by Florida

Bob Przybyloby: Bob Przybylo01/14/26BPrzybylo

You cannot win a game in the first half, but you sure as heck can lose it if you’re OU. And unfortunately, this is not the first time the fans have seen something like this.

An absolutely forgettable first half led to OU dropping its third straight game. But now we’re not talking about having an off night on the road. No, this is getting shellacked in Norman.

That’s what Florida did. The Gators handled the business early, and the Sooners are left searching for answers in a 96-79 loss on Tuesday night at the Lloyd Noble Center.

Halftime? Gators 46, Sooners 24. OU shot 29 percent from the field (9 for 31). OU had another half of just terrible ball movement. Tae Davis had two assists and the rest of the team had zero. OU was outrebounded 23-16. A 20 minutes nobody wants to relive.

It almost didn’t matter what occurred in the second half, very reminiscent to last year’s beatdown against Tennessee. That team, of course, found a way to recover and make the Big Dance. History repeat itself?

Some soul searching going on in Norman with Porter Moser and staff for the next four days.

OU news/notes

*The goal, after being steamrolled early, is try to find some positives. And there were a few in the second half.

Not sure this will ever happen again, but Kirill Elatontsev went 4-for-4 from 3-point territory in the second half alone. His first four makes from downtown in his career. He had 17 points.

*Outside of that, Xzayvier Brown and Davis continue to at least put in the effort. Brown led the way with 24 points. Davis had 17 points and a team-leading seven rebounds and four assists.

*OU will not win any game the rest of the way if Mo Wague cannot figure this out. Another head-scratching performance

Up next

The gut-test is here, period. If OU (11-6 overall, 1-3 SEC) has any hope of turning things around, it has to start Saturday against Alabama. No moral victories. No trying to accentuate the positives. Win. The Sooners are not in a spot where they can lose four games in a row in the SEC and still come out on the other side. There is no ‘fighting through hard’ this time.

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