Offensive boards hurt OU again

LUBBOCK, Texas — For the second consecutive game, Oklahoma gave up big offensive rebounds down the stretch.

Once again Wednesday night, they came back to haunt the Sooners.

Texas Tech grabbed three offensive rebounds in the final 2:30 and turned them into five points as the Red Raiders upset the Sooners 65-63 at United Supermarkets Arena.

“That’s tough,” Sooners coach said. “We have to get loose balls. We have to get missed shots back. When you don’t do that in a late-game situation, you’re stacking the odds against you. We had several of those tonight. Hard to win games if we’re not gonna get missed shots back.”

In Saturday’s loss to Kansas, the Sooners gave up four offensive rebounds in the final 2:30 to the Jayhawks.

“We’ve just got to box guys out,” said. “Guys have got to do a better collective job of rebounding the ball together.”

OU forward led the Sooners with nine rebounds. Fellow starting forward had just three rebounds and no blocks.

WOODARD BREAKS OUT

About the only positive to come out of the loss was

performance. Woodard had been in a slump, shooting just 20.5 percent from the floor in Oklahoma’s previous five games.

But the junior got going early after being fouled on a pull-up jumper less than 10 minutes into the game and stayed aggressive throughout.

Woodard finished with 25 points on 7-of-14 shooting, making all eight free throws.

“The coaches told me to be aggressive,” Woodard said. “I was just trying to drive to find teammates and get to the free-throw line. We had the foul count up. I just wanted to get to the free-throw line and put pressure on the defense and kick.”

Woodard passed the 1,000-point mark for his career in the loss.

SPANGLER PASSES HEARD

Late in the first half with his third rebound of the game, Spangler passed for sixth place on Oklahoma’s career list.

With nine rebounds, Spangler now has 837 for his career. is next on the list with 910. The game was a struggle overall for Spangler, though. He was just 2 for 7 from the floor and finished with five points — all in the second half.

Spangler has missed his last 12 3-pointers.

UP NEXT: AT WEST VIRGINIA

The Sooners travel to Morgantown, W.Va., on Saturday to face West Virginia (3 p.m., ESPN).

Oklahoma is a game behind the Mountaineers in third place in the Big 12. West Virginia is a game back of firstplace Kansas.

The Sooners have lost their last two games at West Virginia, including last year’s 86-65 blowout.

Oklahoma beat the Mountaineers in their meeting in Norman on Jan. 16, 70-68 on Lattin’s tip-in at the buzzer.