Texas Longhorns vs Oklahoma Sooners Match Player Stats On Feb 23, 2019

Christian James scored 19 points to help keep Oklahoma's NCAA Tournament hopes alive and give the Sooners a 69-67 victory over Texas at home on Saturday.

But it took Jamal Bieniemy's block of Matt Coleman III's jumper at the buzzer to seal the victory.

Texas trailed for all but 54 seconds but the Longhorns had a chance thanks to a pair of critical 3-pointers in the final three minutes by Jase Febres, and a missed free throw by Kristian Doolittle with five seconds left that gave the Longhorns one last chance to tie or win.

But Bieniemy, Oklahoma's freshman point guard, leapt and knocked away Coleman's shot just before the buzzer to seal the Sooners' win.

Oklahoma (17-10, 5-9 Big 12) has now won two consecutive games after losing their previous five.

Texas fell to 15-12 overall and 7-7 in conference play, losing for the second time in three games.

The Longhorns were playing their first game since the suspension of senior guard Kerwin Roach II, who is the team's leading scorer . Roach was suspended indefinitely for violating team rules, the university announced Friday.

Without Roach, who scored 23 points in the first meeting between the teams, Texas relied heavily on the 3-pointer.

The Longhorns hit just three field goals from inside the arc in the first half as Oklahoma was able to largely keep Texas out of the paint despite a size disadvantage.

Oklahoma led from the start, with Texas tying the game only briefly just over two minutes into the game before the Sooners started pulling away, building the lead as high as 17 before halftime.

The Sooners again led by 17 early in the second half before Texas started chipping away at the lead. The Longhorns cut the lead to just three, 67-64, on Febres' 3-pointer with 2:52 remaining.

Texas got back into the game largely by protecting the ball. Oklahoma turned the Longhorns' seven first-half turnovers into 13 points on the other end. But Texas turned the ball over just once after halftime.

Febres led the Longhorns with 15 points, with all 15 of his field-goal attempts coming from behind the 3-point line.

--Field Level Media