There were 2.5 seconds remaining on the clock when junior forward Romero Osby stepped toward the free-throw line. Oklahoma trailed No. 4 Missouri, 71-68, Monday night in Lloyd Noble Center, and Osby needed to hit at least one of his two shots.

He didn’t sink the first.

His second shot clanged off the backboard within reach of junior Andrew Fitzgerald. The 6-foot-8-inch forward from Baltimore, Md., instinctively tipped the ball toward the 3-point line.

The ball landed in the hands of the Sooners’ best shooter — junior two-guard Steven Pledger, and he knew he had a great look at the basket.

“It was on line — it felt good when it left my hand,” he said. “It didn’t go in.”

The Sooners (13-10, 3-8) lost, 71-68.

The stench of this loss will linger, especially after junior Sam Grooms played his best basketball in a Sooners’ uniform.

The point guard arrived at the game averaging just six points per contest. But he exploded against Missouri for a career-high 17 points and 10 assists with just two turnovers.

“It’s not hard at all to understand the fact that in basketball you have tomorrow, but by the same token, you want to win at this point in time, right now,” Grooms said. “We just have certain plays and certain mishaps on the court that don’t allow us to do that right now.”

Pledger added 22 points and was responsible for five of the Sooners’ seven made 3-pointers.

Missouri (22-2, 9-2) won the game at the free-throw line. The Tigers converted four of their six free-throw attempts in the first half, while Oklahoma began the night 0-for-7 from the line.

Three of Missouri’s four free-throw conversions allowed it to lead Oklahoma, 36-33, when the halftime buzzer sounded.

The Sooners finished the night shooting 9-of-23 from the stripe. Just four of their 14 misses could have won Oklahoma the game.

Coach Lon Kruger struggled to find the reason for OU’s terrible free-throw shooting after the game.

“It is hard to explain because we have shot free throws very well,” Kruger said. “Certainly, Pledger is one of the top shooters in the country. When you play the game long enough, it will happen, unfortunately.”

Pledger entered the game as one of the nation’s top free-throw shooters, averaging 89.7 percent from the line. But he was just 1-of-4 from the line against the Tigers.

“The free-throws were killer,” Pledger said. “I couldn’t even understand why I was missing, let alone the rest of the team.”

For the Sooners, this game was a chance for a signature win in the house that Wayman built, a chance to knock off one of the nation’s elite before a national audience.

But they fell short, and their return to the upper echelon of college basketball will have to wait.

“It is frustrating, I know, to the players, coaches and fans, to everyone to not get the result that we want,” Kruger said. “We just have to keep getting better.”