Kentucky basketball survives OU as Otega Oweh scores final 18 points vs Sooners

Posted by author February 27, 2025 Basketball

NORMAN — Porter Moser tipped his cap.

“He had a phenomenal game,” said Moser, OU’s head coach, of Otega Oweh to begin his postgame news conference. “He made some tough shots and we couldn’t get a stop down the stretch.”

The former Sooner, who transferred away this past offseason, was a relentless force late in the game. He scored Kentucky’s final 18 points, including the game-winning basket with six seconds left.

Moser opted not to call a timeout following Oweh’s bucket and true freshman guard Jeremiah Fears’ last-ditch drive with one second remaining was rejected by Wildcats center Brandon Garrison, giving No. 23 Kentucky an 83-82 edge Wednesday at the Lloyd Noble Center and leaving OU’s NCAA tournament chances on thin ice.

“Both teams played their tails off,” Moser said. “ … (Fears) had the ball and he got right to the rim. And then you guys can look at the clip, I just looked at it. There were so many calls at the rim, down there and down here, and Jeremiah got to the rim right there. We wanted the ball in his hands for sure, we worked on attacking before the defense got set.

“ … But I can’t say enough about our guys. I told them to keep their heads up.”

Sooners senior forward Jalon Moore played inspired, finishing with a team-high 20 points and Fears impressed with 18, grabbing eight rebounds and dishing six assists.

The loss, coupled with Oweh’s play and development away from the Sooners this season, will only bring more questions regarding Moser’s future with the program.

OU (17-11, 4-11 SEC) was in prime position to improve its bubble status — one of the last four teams in the field entering the contest — with a win. While the Sooners looked like a different team than the one that lost five consecutive games, the loss sums up the past four seasons of the Moser era.

They’ve fallen just short. Whether it’s making the tournament, winning close games or retaining players, like Oweh, who were thought to be critical pieces of Moser’s culture-first approach he sought to instill when he arrived from Loyola-Chicago.

“All I can speak about is just now,” said Moser, whose buyout is shy of $8 million and who is now 24-45 in conference games at OU. “I’m hurt for the guys right now. I thought we did great things against a high-level team, and I thought we played high level in areas, and we fell one point short.”

OU has lost six of its last seven and likely needs to string together two or three more wins if it stands a chance at March Madness.

Oweh, who was energized being back in the building he called home for two seasons, might have sealed the Sooners’ fate. He dropped a career-high 28 for the Wildcats (19-9, 8-7).

He was adamant this week that his long-awaited return to face his former team was just another game. It wasn’t until the horn sounded and the dust settled that he admitted this one felt different with a smirk.

“Yeah I would say so,” said Oweh when asked if his performance meant extra against OU. “(I came out) with high motor and intensity on both ends of the floor.”

During a free-throw attempt with 2:48 remaining, OU fans chanted “he’s a traitor” toward Oweh. He was asked about the boos postgame.

“It’s a great feeling,” Oweh said, “just coming to your old space and getting a win. I heard the boos and as a basketball player, it was just cool having that. Being a basketball player, getting that attention.”

Moser added of Oweh: “He’s very hard to stop one-on-one. He’s very powerful. I don’t think we plugged as good as we talked about, he’s having a phenomenal year. And I’m not surprised, he’s really worked.”

The Sooners have three regular-season games remaining — on the road against Mississippi at 1 p.m. Saturday and back home vs. Missouri next Wednesday before traveling to archrival Texas next Saturday — and the SEC tournament in Nashville, Tennessee, to give themselves a chance.

Time is ticking and Oweh might’ve just sped it up.

“We leave Friday against a tough Ole Miss team,” Moser said. “And so (we need) leadership of getting them back up, keeping your head up, coming back and understanding it’s a big-time opportunity.

“Leadership is huge to get us back up. We’re all hurt and gave everything we had. We fell one point short.”