No. 10 OU women’s basketball fell to No. 4 Texas 78-70 in Austin on Sunday.

The Sooners (17-5, 5-4 SEC) lost their first game since they matched up with No. 6 LSU (21-2, 7-2 SEC) on Jan. 18, after building a three-game winning streak ahead of Sunday’s matchup.

Texas (21-2, 6-2 SEC) improved its lead to 41-29 in the all-time series against OU in the second top-10 meeting between the two.

Here are three takeaways from the Sooners’ loss:

Texas defense rattles OU

Texas’ defense set the tone against the Sooners with its active hands and on-ball pressure.

OU was unable to settle into its offensive sets on a regular basis, often taking heavily contested and off-balance looks that led to 45% shooting across the game.

The Longhorns held OU to its lowest-scoring quarter of the season in the first with 10 points and built a 40-24 halftime lead supported by excellent perimeter defense and 20 points off turnovers. While OU put together a much better offensive second half, the first half damage was insurmountable, as the Texas defense did enough to keep the Sooners at bay and prevent a comeback.

The nation’s 10th-best defense at forcing turnovers had OU’s number, with the Sooners giving the ball away 21 times, as sophomore guard Zya Vann and junior forward Sahara Williams each recorded five turnovers.

Aaliyah Chavez struggles offensively

Freshman guard Aaliyah Chavez couldn’t find any consistency against Texas, as she scored 11 points on 3-of-13 shooting.

This season, Chavez has been hit or miss against AP top-10 opponents. In her five games against them, she has scored 11 against then-No. 3 UCLA (21-1, 11-0 Big Ten), 18 against then-No. 6 Kentucky (18-5, 5-4 SEC), 11 against LSU, 26 against then-No. 2 South Carolina (21-2, 7-1 SEC) and now 11 against Texas.

Chavez showed her inexperience in her second road game against a ranked opponent, often forcing her shots and taking low-percentage looks early in the shot clock. She struggled to gain any traction from beyond the arc, going 1-of-6 from 3-point range with her lone make coming at the start of the third quarter. On the season, Chavez makes over a third of her 3-point attempts with an average of three makes on 8.5 attempts per game.

Sooners unable to take control

The Longhorns were at the helm all game as they rolled past OU with steady scoring and rebounding, preventing the Sooners from taking the lead a single time.

Texas led for over 37 minutes and had the game tied for just over two minutes at the start of the first quarter. After that, OU failed to get within a single score of the Longhorns despite outscoring them 46-38 in the second half.

The Sooners also struggled to impose their will on the glass, where Texas finished with a rebounding margin of 36-32 and edged out the second-best rebounding team in the country. Adding insult to injury, Texas shot a staggering 51% from the field and overpowered the OU defense with its consistent shotmaking inside and beyond the arc, posting 24 points in the paint and 15 from deep.

OU is now 1-4 against AP top-10 opponents with its lone win coming against South Carolina.

OU will look to bounce back in another AP top-10 matchup against No. 5 Vanderbilt (20-2, 6-2 SEC) at 8 p.m. on Feb. 9 in Nashville on ESPN2.

This story was edited by Joshua McDaniel.

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