Dec. 23—Oklahoma’s biggest weakness Tuesday evening became a strength in the closing seconds of its Big 12 home opener.

The Sooners, battling 15thranked Texas Tech, struggled from the free-throw line, missing 10 of their 27 attempts. Two of OU’s foul shots, however, were intentional misses.

The Sooners trailed the Red Raiders 69-67 with three seconds remaining and would ultimately fall to that score. But as OU sophomore De’Vion Harmon, who scored a teamhigh 17 points, put it, the Sooners couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity to force overtime.

Perhaps OU’s last-second shortcomings were fitting in a game where it could never get ahead of Texas Tech.

How the Sooners managed to shoot just 40.7% from the floor to the Red Raiders’ 49.1% mark, lose the turnover battle, trail for 38:30 and be in the contest at least showed OU (5-2, 1-1 Big 12) can still hang with one of the nation’s best.

“Certainly disappointing to not quite get over the hump,” OU coach Lon Kruger said. “But I like the guys’ fight late. ... We know every night in the league is going to be like this.”

OU’s chances were slim, trailing by five with less than a minute remaining.

A Umoja Gibson 3-pointer with 48 seconds left put OU within two. Texas Tech’s Mac McClung stormed down the court and went up and under three OU defenders for a reverse lay-in, however, to make it a four-point game.

After both teams traded possessions, Austin Reaves pulled up from the perimeter with 6 seconds remaining and knocked down a 3-pointer to put OU within one.

A pair of free throws from McClung and an intentional foul from Texas Tech put the Sooners at the line with 3 seconds remaining. Harmon made the first but purposefully bricked the second.

Fellow sophomore Victor Iwuakor, who added 10 rebounds and eight points off the bench, grabbed the miss and drew a foul.

His first free throw missed but not by design. Iwuakor, who finished 4 of 10 from the foul line, then had to duplicate Harmon’s missed free throw.

He did it and the Sooners had two desperation tips to tie the game. Neither fell, yet the ball eventually found Reaves, who had time to collect the ball in the air and let go of a three-foot jumper before his feet came back to earth and the buzzer sounded.

It didn’t fall either.

“The ball just didn’t bounce our way,” Harmon said.

While OU missed this one, it will have plenty more opportunities at a top-25 victory — its next three outings are against No. 7 West Virginia on Jan. 2, at No. 2 Baylor on Jan. 6 and at No. 3 Kansas on Jan. 9.

A better offensive performance will go a long way. The Sooners could never get senior forward Brady Manek going. He finished with two points on 1-of-7 shooting.

Fellow starting forward Kur Kuath also scored just two points in the defeat.

OU managed to get 13 points from Reaves and 11 from Gibson.

But figuring out how to get its offense to flow against an elite defense won’t be exclusive to Tuesday.

“They’re very good, very good defensive club,” Kruger said of Texas Tech. “We’re gonna say that about every club we see in the Big 12. Tech does a great job. They make buckets hard to come by. You have to finish when you have the opportunity.”

OU couldn’t capitalize on its late opportunities to stun Tech.

But Harmon, who generally maintains an upbeat demeanor, sees the team only going up from Tuesday’s loss.

“We played a really good game,” Harmon said, “Now we just gotta put it together. Play a 40-minute game. But I love the way we fought. and the best thing is we’re only gonna get better.”