Sooners fall in opening round of NCAA Tournament

True freshman Jeremiah Fears was great, but his team-high 20 points were not enough to get the Sooners passed the back-to-back defending national champion Connecticut Huskies. The 8th-seeded Huskies knocked off the 9th-seeded Sooners 67-59.

The Sooners struggled out of the gates, scoring just 26 first-half points. Jalon Moore missed his first 6 shot attempts but finished strong, scoring 11 of his 13 points in the second half.

OU trailed 32-26 at halftime, and by as many as 9 points in the second half, but as they have done over the last month of the season, the players kept fighting. Mo Wague eventually capped off a 7-0 run that gave the Sooners their first lead of the game with 9:03 to play.

Moore scored back-to-back baskets to tie the game with just under 6 minutes left, but UCONN star Alex Karaban scored 7 points in the final five minutes to help ice the game. Oklahoma missed its final five shot attempts.

After the game, Head Coach Porter Moser said, "I couldn't have asked for any better effort from our guys, especially defensively. The effort they gave for 40 minutes, I couldn't as a coach ask for anything more from these guys."

Moser added, "We didn't get some shots to fall. They made two big ones in a row, Karaban made two big ones in a row. The one thing I told them, they can't have any regrets. They left everything they had on the floor guarding a lot of movement, and I thought defensively their effort was outstanding."

The Sooners finish the 2024-25 campaign with a 20-14 record. The transfer portal opens on March 24th. Expect to see a lot of new faces in Norman again next season.