NORMAN, Okla. — It’s a new season for Arkansas basketball, and the Razorbacks have a new coach.

But they’re still having a problem winning on the road.

Oklahoma dominated at crunch time to beat Arkansas 83-72 on Saturday before approximately 9, 200 fans at Lloyd Noble Center in the Razorbacks’ first road game of the season.

Arkansas (8-2 ) fell to 9-38 on the road since the 2002-2003 season, including 2-8 last year.

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“It’s disappointing, because we really wanted this game,” Razorbacks sophomore guard Stefan Welsh said. “We’re tired of hearing about how we can’t win on the road.

“ But we know what we have in that locker room, and we will prove we can win on the road.”

The Razorbacks were in position to prove it Saturday with the game tied at 60 after Welsh scored on a drive with 8: 04 to play.

Oklahoma (8-3 ) then took the lead for good at 63-60 on a three-point basket by sophomore Tony Crocker at the 7: 36 mark to start a 19-8 run that finished off the Razorbacks.

“Give Oklahoma credit,” first-year Arkansas Coach John Pelphrey said. “They really just played better than us down the stretch.”

After the Razorbacks closed within 68-65, they failed to score on three consecutive possessions on which senior forward Sonny Weems missed a jump shot, Oklahoma’s 6-11 senior Longar Longar blocked a shot by Weems and senior guard Gary Ervin was called for traveling.

While the Sooners were getting those stops, Longar hit two free throws and dunked, and junior guard Austin Johnson hit a three-point basket to push Oklahoma’s lead to 75-65 with 2: 19 left.

“It’s been a long week since what happened here last Saturday and our guys responded,” said Oklahoma Coach Jeff Capel, who had the Sooners practice at midnight after they suffered a 66-62 home-court loss to Stephen F. Austin. “To our guys’ credit, they never wavered.”

Johnson and Longar scored 17 points each to lead the Sooners against Arkansas.

“I just think it’s the mindset,” Johnson said when asked to explain how Oklahoma could beat the Razorbacks after losing to a Southland Conference team. “The Stephen F. Austin game, I felt like we didn’t come ready to play and kind of underestimated them, just because of the name and who we think they are.

“ We didn’t know they were as good as they were. Knowing Arkansas is a lot better than they were —a lot better — I think that loss helped us a lot.”

Arkansas outscored the Sooners 42-28 in the lane thanks to strong games by sophomore forward Michael Washington (16 points, 12 rebounds ) and senior forward Darian Townes (13 points, seven rebounds ).

But the Razorbacks shot 5 of 23 on three-point attempts, including 0 of 6 by sophomore guard Patrick Beverley, their preseason All-SEC first-team pick.

Beverley, guarded by Crocker when the Sooners played manto-man and a marked man for their zone defense, finished 3 of 14 from the field overall and scored eight points.

“You’re not going to hold him to those kinds of nights all the time,” Capel said. “But our guys did a very good job of paying attention to detail. We talked about him a lot in the scouting report.”

In addition to shooting 21. 7 percent from three-point range, the Razorbacks hit just 9 of 17 free throws.

“I’m going to fire the shooting coach,” Pelphrey said. “I don’t know who that is yet. Nobody stepped up back there to take credit for that.”

While the Razorbacks were struggling to convert behind both lines, Oklahoma hit 11 of 25 three-pointers and 16 of 20 free throws.

The Sooners also did a good job of handling the ball with 18 assists and eight turnovers against Arkansas’ pressure defense.

“Nobody likes to lose, but at the same time, it doesn’t have anything to do with what happened in the past,” Ervin said when asked about losing yet again on the road. “We’re not going to hang our heads about one loss.

“ It’s a long season. This is only the 10 th game. We’ve got 66 percent of our games to be played, and we can still accomplish a lot.

“ This game isn’t going to get us down. We just need to learn from our mistakes.”