Playing with 'no juice, no energy and no fight,' Texas can't overcome Oklahoma onslaught

A lackluster defensive effort doomed No. 10 Texas in a 91-87 loss to rival Oklahoma at Moody Center on Wednesday night.

The loss dealt a huge blow to UT's hope of defending the Big 12 championship it won last season. Now 5-3 in conference play, the Longhorns fell three losses behind No. 4 Kansas State in the standings.

After Texas allowed more than 90 points to Oklahoma for the first time since 1998, head coach Vic Schaefer questioned his team's effort.

"We didn't play well. We played terrible. We played with no juice, no energy and no fight," Schaefer said. "We happened with five minutes to go to decide to try to play a little bit better. Well, it's too late. That's just too late. That doesn't do anything for me except show me that you just didn't want to do it the first 35 (minutes). So that's not acceptable. I don't care where I'm coaching. I don't care if I'm at Timbuktu, you ain't going to play for me like that. That is not acceptable. And it damn sure ain't acceptable at Texas."

Here are three observations and a quote from the Longhorns' four-point loss to their Red River rival:

Oklahoma comes up clutch in the final seconds

Oklahoma never trailed after it went up with 7:13 left in the second quarter, and its lead swelled to 11 points in the fourth quarter. Texas did rally late, and Madison Booker's 3-pointer made it a one-point game with 59 seconds remaining.

On the next possession, Oklahoma iced the game. Defended by UT guard Shay Holle, Oklahoma's Nevaeh Tot drove to the basket as forward Aaliyah Moore slid over to help defensively. Tot then kicked the basketball out to Payton Verhulst, who quickly flipped it to Lexy Keys. Left open, Keys got off a clean shot before the closest Texas defender could close in on the senior guard.

The basket lifted the Oklahoma lead back to four points with 40 seconds left.

The 3-pointer by Keys was Oklahoma's 10th of the night. Texas last allowed a team to make 10 3-pointers against Oklahoma State on Jan. 28, 2023. Keys was playing for the Cowgirls at that time, and she made two 3-pointers in that game.

"It's just a type of offense and passing that we work on every single day in practice," Verhulst said of the decisive play. "I think it's really hard to beat a team when you can't just pick one or two players to guard and you have to guard all five people on the court, everywhere in the court. I think that just puts a lot of emphasis on the type of basketball that we play here."

The 91 points scored by Oklahoma were the second-most allowed by a Schaefer-coached team at Texas. During his first season with the Longhorns, UT lost 92-58 at West Virginia on Jan. 9, 2021.

No turnovers by Tot

In the postgame press conference, Schaefer expressed his displeasure with the season-low nine turnovers that Texas forced. As Oklahoma's point guard, Tot distributed 10 assists and did not turn over the basketball once.

"She's really good at running her team," Holle said. "She's super quick and explosive. So when she beats you off the bounce, it makes us go into rotation, and then they have really good shooters. She's a really good facilitator. She runs that team really well — she's kind of their motor — so she definitely caused some problems for us."

Tot is the only returning starter from an Oklahoma team that split the Big 12 championship with Texas last year. Tot also scored 14 points as OU had five players in double digits. Forward Skylar Vann's 19 points led the Sooners (12-6, 6-1).

Booker and Holle ... but not much else

Both Holle and Booker recorded career-high scoring totals Wednesday. Booker, a freshman, scored 29 points. Holle, a fourth-year senior, scored 22 points and made 10 of her 12 shots.

But take out the 20 shots that Booker and Holle combined to make on their 31 attempts, and Texas was just 11-for-35 from the field. No other Longhorn scored more than 11 points. Starting guard Shaylee Gonzales missed nine of her 10 attempts.

Texas also got just 10 points from the four players who for 41 minutes off the bench. In last weekend's win at Oklahoma State, the UT bench was shut out.

They said it: Holle echoes Schaefer's concerns about UT's effort

"The most important stat is getting the win. I think not doing that tonight, we just have to watch the film. It's not going to be pretty, but you've got to do it, and we have to learn from it because we do have a quick turnaround, so you can't really be all, 'Poor me.' You've just got to bounce back and put your head down and go to work," said Holle, one of two Texas players who have played for four years under Schaefer.

"I'm definitely going to try to relay that to the team because we're just better than that, and we know we can play hard. We shouldn't have Coach coaching our heart the whole game. He should be coaching the X's and O's, and tonight he had to coach our effort, which is on us because that's something we can control. No matter if our shots are falling or not, you're able to control your energy and your effort, so that should be 100% all the time. I think we need to get everyone on that page. That'll start tomorrow in practice."

Texas is set to host Cincinnati (10-8, 2-5) on Saturday afternoon.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas unable to beat Oklahoma in Red River Rivalry basketball game