The Oklahoma Sooners DID WIN their 1st SEC Women's Basketball Game in Knoxville, TN on Saturday afternoon but it was a frantic finish to a game. The Sooners led by 10 points, 85-75, with 2:34 seconds left in the game. But Tennessee scored 8 unanswered points to hrink the Sooner lead to 2 points with 1:05 left in the game. In those 89 seconds, the Sooners missed a free throw, got a steal followed by a turnover, then missed a 3-point with an offensive rebound before missing a point-blank layup, then had a turnover in 3 possesions. The Sooners cashed in on a foul with Payton Verhulst making 2 of 2 free free thorws to put OU back up by 4 points, 87-83, with 0:56 left to play. With 40 seconds left, Spear, the 3-point sharpshooter for Tennessee, made her third 3-point bucket in the last 2 minutes of play to make it a 1-point game at 87-86. (Spear came into the game with 29 made three's.) OU then was unable to get a shot off before the shot clock expired as the two teams scuffed on the floor trying to gain a jump ball for another Sooner turnover with 10 seconds left. The game ended on a wide-open three-point shot taken by Tennessee that clanked off the rim into Raegan Beers hands to secure the win as the entire Sooner team and coaches took a hige breath of relief.
Through 3Q, the Sooners had thee game well-in-hand after 30 minutes of play with a lead of 75-59. The Sooners had built a 16-point lead despite the fact that OU accumulated 25 turnovers through the first three quarters. The lead was possible because the Sooners had shot 60% from the field (30 of 50 from the field) with a 75% made from inside the arc (24 of 32) and 33% from beyond the arc (6 of 18). T Sooners also made 9 of 13 free throws for 69.2%. Oklahoma had also outran the Volunteers with 33 points to 17 points reflecting the 16-point lead overall.
The game was a constant shuffle of players by both teams as they often substituted five-for-five players, sometimes even at the same time. Keeping up with the matchups kept someone very busy on the stats. There were 37 fouls whistled inthe game with only 23 free throws taken, however.
As inferred above, the real story, was the numerous turnovers by the Sooners. It is an often discussed topic. A fan could say that the loss to Texas on Thursday night at LNC might have been caused by the 27 tunrnovers leading to 28 points for Texas compared to the 18 turnovers by Texas leading to 15 Sooners points in the 7-point loss by Oklahoma as both teams shot roughly the same %'s in the game. But Texas only had 1 more shot than the Sooners as OU had 10 more offensive rebounds in the game than did Texas.
Against Tennessee the turnover total buldged to 31 for the Sooners leading to 30 points for Tennessee as Tennessee had 18 turnovers leading to 20 Oklahoma points for a 10 point advantage for Tennessee as well as 28 more shots by Tennessee in the game. Against Tennessee, the Volunteers also had 4 more offensive rebounds than the Sooner had.
Okahoma won because they shot the ball very well with a 54% mark from the field including a phenomenal 26 for 36 from inside the arc for 70.3% with 30.8% from beyond the arc and 68.8% from the free throw line (needs to be better than that from the free throw line.) Plus Tennessee did not shoot the ball well as well. For the season and in the game against Oklahom they shot 45.6-ish from the field. But from 3-point territory the Volunteers shot only 27.8% instead of the 33.5% for the season going into the game. Normally they make 2 more "three's" a game. It is a very good thing they did not make 1 more on Sunday afternoon! The biggest plus for OU might have been that Tennessee only shot 7 free throws and only made 2. Instead of the 66.5% they normal shot from the charity stripe they only shot 28.6% on Sunday.
Oklahoma lead after the 1Q 28-22. After 2Q's they lead 46-39. After 3Q's the Sooners lead 75-59. In the 4th Quarter OU was outscored 27-12 and the reult was a 1-point win with the 87-86 final score.
Here is an interesting comparison:
- By quarter, the Sooners had 7, 10, 6 and 8 (31 total) turnovers in the four quarters of play.
- By quarter, the Sooners made 13, 6, 11 and 4 (34 total) made buckets in the four quarters of play.
- With the Sooners shooting a healthy 48.5% from the field through their 15 games, if the Sooners cut the turnovers by 25%, in this case 7 or 8 of them, the Sooner would score 3+ more points.
- Those 3 extra points would have created a 4-point margin which would have been a much wider safety margin than the 1-point margin theey had.
IMO, Oklahoma will not be successful too many times in SEC play if they average 29 turnovers as they have in the first two games. Granted, Texas and Tennessee are 28-2 and they are both ranked teams. But the Sooners are now averaging 19.0 turnovers a game. That simply has to improve. that is 19 possesions given to the other team pr game. If they shoot 40% from the field it is 7.6 points a game but most turnovers turn into points quickly. The stats say that the Sooners give up 15.7 points per game after a turnover. A turnover is a just about a point for the other team on average. OU has to make up those points every game. Against Tennessee they had to make up 10 points due to points after a turnover. OU made up 11, just barely enough.
Point leaders for the Sooners were:
- Verhulst with 16 and 5 rebounds. (5 of 15 and 4 of 11 on 3's)
- Beers with 13 points and 8 rebounds. (6 of 7 and 1 of 4 on FT)
- Liz Scott with 11 points and 5 rebounds (4 of 4 and 3 of 4 FT)
- Reyna Scott with 11 points and 2 rebounds (4 of 8 and o of 3 on 3's)
- Culliton with 8 points and 3 rebounds. Beatrice has played well in the first two SEC games.
- Williams with 7 points and 2 rebounds. (3 of 9 and 1 of 3 on 3's)
- Zya Vann with 7 points and 0 rebounds. (3 of 4 and 1 of 1 on 3's)
- Tot with 6 points and 2 rebounds. (2 of 5 and 0 of 3 on 3's)
- Keys with 6 points and 1 rebound. (2 of 5 and 2 of 4 on 3's)
- Johnson with 2 points and 1 rebound. (1 of 1)
- Skylar Vann with 0 points and 7 rebounds. (0-1)
- Joens with 0 points and 0 rebounds. (no shots)
I also wish knew how to get Skylar Vann going better this season. In 2023-24, Skylar Vann scored 15.1 points a game with 7.0 rebounds. In 2025, Vann is averaging 10.1 and 4.9 rebounds a game. In the last 3 games, Vann has made 15 points and had 15 rebounds. That is a 5.0 Pt/G and a 5.0 Reb/G average. I know that Raegan Beers is occupying her space this season. But I wonder if Beers, Williams and Vann playing in the same space most of the time is just too many inside players and not enough outside players. Williams has improved her 3-point shot as a sohomore from 20% to 28.6% but that is still low. Vann is still shooting 27% compared to 28% for last year from 3-point territory. Neither are really 3-point specialst.
Maybe the Sooners should find a fifth starter and move Vann to the reserves to let her play with L Scott in the low-high post setup which always seems effective both offensively and defensively. It might also open the lane up for Beers with another outside shooter as a starter. I would think about switching Keys or Z Vann to the starting 5 with Skylar Vann moving to the second 5 or the 6th-player with L. Scott, R. Scott, Keys/Z Vann and maybe Joens or Culltion. We need more from S Vann, I think.
The Sooners are 1-1 in SEC play and are 13-2 overall. I think today, the Sooners coud still be in the Top 10 or at least the Top 12 teams in the country. Nothing is lost yet. But my oh my, those turnovers need to be improved upon now. Desperately!
The Sooners play at Mississippi State (Thursday) and at home against Texas A&M (Sunday) next week. MSU is 0-2 (13-3 overall) in the SEC and A&M is 1-1 (8-6 overall) in the SEC. Oklahoma is 1-1 in the SEC and 13-2 overall.
Boomer Sooner!
