After midway in the second quarter, Oklahoma outscored Alabama 34-17 but it wasn’t enough after a 28-point opening onslaught and the Sooners lost 34-45 in the semifinals of the College Football Playoffs in the Orange Bowl Saturday night.

For the second year in a row, OU has failed to advance to the national championship game, which is Monday night and will feature No. 1 Alabama against No. 2 Clemson, who beat No. 3 Notre Dame 30-3, also on Saturday. After winning the Big 12 Championship four years in a row, OU has played in three of the last four playoffs.

“I hate that it ends right now, because you’re sick, you feel like you’re right there, being ready to play (in the national championship game) next week,” said OU coach Lincoln Riley. “It was certainly a game we fully expected to win.”

Defense once again proved to be Oklahoma’s Achilles’ heel as Alabama took an early 21-0 lead and held on to win.

“The start of the game, give Alabama credit, they’re a really good football team,” Riley said. “They made a run on us there early. We just had a hard time breaking their string of momentum.”

The offense, led by Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray, sputtered in the first quarter but finished the game with respectable numbers. Murray hit 19 of 37 passes for 308 yards, two TDs and no interceptions. He also carried the ball 17 times for 109 yards.

OU scored touchdowns on their final three drives of the game. Two late attempts at onside kicks were recovered by Alabama.

“You’ve just got to go out there and fight. That’s what we did… I just hope everybody knows I never quit,” Murray said.

“I mean, they outplayed us early,” Riley said. “I think it’s as simple as that. It was just a complete tale of two games. I mean, they completely outplayed us early and then we completely outplayed them pretty much the rest of the way.”

OU scored the most points against Alabama since Mississippi scored 43 points against them in 2016. The Sooners set season highs by an Alabama opponent in points (34), total yards (471), yards per play (6.8), passing yards (308) and first downs (26).

Murray, drafted by the Oakland A’s baseball team, may have played his last game for Oklahoma. All indications are that he will play pro baseball instead of returning to OU next season or being drafted and playing in the NFL. He is projected to be a first round NFL pick should he chose to go that route.

Riley, who has drawn interest from NFL teams looking for a new head coach, said after the game that he loves being at OU and he looks forward to winning a national championship in the near future.

All-American wide receiver Marquise Brown of Oklahoma didn’t catch a pass even thought he was targeted five times. Brown had a lower leg injury and wasn’t at full speed. This could have been his last game as a Sooner as he is eligible to enter the NFL draft and forego his senior season.

OU wideout CeeDee Lamb had a game-high eight receptions for 109 yards and one touchdown. Charleston Rambo had three receptions for 74 yards, including a 49-yard touchdown catch (sixth longest in OU bowl history). It was his first career score.

OU kicker Austin Seibert set an NCAA career scoring record with 499 points for his career. The previous record was 494 points by Arizona State’s Zane Gonzalez (2013-16). Seibert is fourth overall in NCAA career scoring. Former Navy quarterback Keenan Reynolds has the record with 580 points (from 2012-15). Seibert finishes his OU career with 310 career extra-points in 315 attempts, which upped his NCAA records in both.