The Oklahoma Women's Basketball Team will travel to Ames, IA this weekend to play Iowa State. The winner will remain in 1st Place with the loser dropping to 2nd place one full game behind first place. Currently, OU, I-State and Texas are tied for 1st Place with a 6-2 record in the conference. Texas host Oklahoma State on Saturday at 7 PM.
The OU-I-State game tips off at 3 PM on Saturday. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+. I believe that Chris Plank will call the action on the Sooner Radio Network. (KREF 99.3 FM/1400 AM in Norman and KOKC 95.3 FM/1520 AM in OKC).
Here is the staff writers article about the second big game in-a-row for the Sooner Women.
https://soonersports.com/news/2023/1/27 ... -of-big-12
Iowa State is coming off of a 40-point drubbing of TCU on Wednesday night. When the week began, OU was ranked #14/12 and Iowa State was ranked #18/15. That will change due to OU's lopsided loss to Texas (RV#27/31) on Wednesday night. It is very important for OU to 'right-their-ship on Saturday.
Iowa State is adjusting their lineup after the loss of their Center, Soares. who went down against OU at LNC earlier. Their other four starters are led by Ashley Joens, who is a top player in the women's game. The other three Donarski, Ryan and Fritz are 'clone' guards who are good sized and can shoot and play the game. Replacing Soares has been Diew and Kane. Diew is more versatile as she can play inside and outside. Kane is probably better inside. Iowa State has not lost at home in 2023. Their three loses have been on the road to North Carolina, OU and Texas.
Oklahoma will have to play very well on Saturday to defeat the Cyclones in Ames. The game will likely be won by the guards of the two teams as I expect Joens for I-State and Williams to offset each other in the game. They are two of the best forwards in the Big 12. L Scott/Vann could perhaps give OU and advantage inside against the replacement centers for I-State. Tot, Llanusa, Robertson, Tucker, Aubrey Joens (sister to Ashley) and maybe Reyna Scott will need to play well against the Cyclone guards.
The Sooners can win this important road game on Saturday. Coach Baranczyk needs to lead her team very well on Saturday as they bounce back.
An important side-story to the game on Saturday is Taylor Robertson's chase of the all-time 'number of THREE's made' record. Currently T-Rob is tied with Kelsey Mitchell's, who played at Ohio State. Robertson has played 137 games while Mitchell played 139 career games. Robertson can own the record and accomplish the feat in fewer games with a THREE toninght againt Iowa State. I would think that Iowa State, being a very good women's basketball program and fan base, will acknowledge the record-breaking bucket if it happens on Saturday. It is too bad it is not happening in Norman at LNC, but the Sooners will need every point by Robertson on Saturday they can get. Robertson also has made a THREE in 61-straight games.
Good luck to the Sooner Women tomorrow.
Boomer Sooner!
OU Women's BB'ers to play Iowa State for 1st on Saturday @ 3 PM
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Lady Sooners open with a 10 point lead but Iowa St. battles back and at halftime, the game is tied at 42.
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Sooners open the third quarter with an 8-0 run and then go cold. They trail 65-56 after 3 quarters.
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Well, the Women's Basketballers had a tough week on the road this week. After a poor 2nd half against Texas in which they scored 6 in the 3Q and 22 in the hlf to lose by 20 points, 58-78, the Sooners almost repeat the effort against Iowa State in Ames with a 14 point 3Q and they never recovered from the 9-point deficit that created. The Sooners dropped their second game in a row to Iowa State 86-78. After reaching first place all by themselves after defeating Oklahoma State in LNC, the Sooners are now in 3rd place behind Texas and Iowa State by a full game, while being ahead of West Virginia and Baylor by a half game.
Oklahoma opened quickly with an 8-0 lead over Iowa State and led by 8 at the end of the 1Q, 24-18. The primary intrigue of the game in Ames was taken care of in the 1Q as Robertson made her tie-breaking THREE at the 4:18 mark of the quarter to make the score 16-11 in favor of the Sooners. BIG HIGH-THREE to T-Rob on the record. And she accomplished the record in one game less than Mitchell. OU shot very well in the 1Q as they were 10-18 from the floor and 6 of 10 from three's including 3 from T-Rob. Iowa State stayed in the quarter with free throws as they made 6 of 8 from the charity stripe. Uncharacteristically, Llanusa and Tot had two fouls in the quarter.
Iowa State rebounded in the 2Q to outscore OU by 8 points to create a 42-42 tie at half. OU did not shoot badly in the quarter but they had no THREE's in the quarter. Iowa State shot 5% points better than OU at 47.1% and did make 3 THREE's in the quarter.
The 3rd quarter saw Oklahoma start quickly as they scored 8 straight points to open play and led 50-42 at the 7:25 mark of the quarter. But before you could say, "good start", Iowa State roared back to outscore OU 21-3 to take a 63-53 point with 1:06 left in the 3Q. Joens made a bucket and Culliton made a free shot for the only Sooner points in that stretch of time. Robertson made another 3 to close the quarter as OU trailed 65-56. Oklahoma shot 19.0% in the quarter with only 1 bucket made inside the arc in 16 tries. They were 3 of 5 from 3-point territory. Iowa State shot 50% from the field in the quarter. Ou had 6 offensive rebounds in the quarter and scored only 2 second-chance points in the quarter.
The Sooners fought to get back into the game in the 4th quarter and got as close as 3 points at the 8:04 mark when Robertson made a backdoor layup to make the score 66-63. One last-ditch effort by Robertson on a 4-point play made the score 71-68 to trail by 3 again at the 4:32 mark. Behind largely free shots, Iowa State then closed it with 15 more points to OU's 10 to win the game 86-78.
In a trend that is troubling, Iowa State scored 30 points from the free throw line to OU's 11. A 19-point deficit. A Huge Difference. OU was called for 29 fouls to the Cyclones 15 which is a significant difference, but not as great as the 20 extra shots at the line. Oklahoma has to stop the slapping, reaching, ticky-tack fouls that they commit. The have to get their hands up and when the other team has the ball secured, stop trying to get a steal and get back on defense.
Robertson played very well on Saturday with 25 points and 80% shooting from the field. LLanusa and Williams followed with 14 and 13 points, but I think neither would say that they played well. Certainly not well enough. It seems that LLanusa has maybe hit some sort of 'wall". I looked back and Llanusa last played in 20 ball games (ike she has this year) in the 2019-2020 season. Three years ago Coming off of major knee surgery which is its own type of toll on a body, I wonder if she is tired a bit. She was playing very well about 2 weeks ago for the Sooners. Williams was also playing well last week as she was the Big 12 Player of the Week.
As an example of the play yesterday, Tot/Llanusa/Williams/Vann were 16 of 46 from the field and 5 of 14 from 3-point. I think in this case against a good Iowa State team, the Sooners needed more from them.
Iowa State gets a great deal of effort and good play from the 4 players of Ashley Joens (tremendous player), Fritz, Ryan and Donarski. They all played 36+ minutes yesterday. For OU only Robertson played more than 29 minutes.
OU has a chance to get things back on track this next week. They play TCU on Tuesday night in LNC at 6 PM and then they host West Virginia on Saturday at 2 PM in LNC. Next week, Baylor plays at Kansas at home and at Iowa State. Iowa State plays at K-State before the Baylor game. Texas plays at West Virginia and at Kansas. If the Sooners take care of their business, maybe they will find themselves back in a 1st place tie at the end of the week.
Good luck to the Sooner Women next week.
Boomer Sooner!
Oklahoma opened quickly with an 8-0 lead over Iowa State and led by 8 at the end of the 1Q, 24-18. The primary intrigue of the game in Ames was taken care of in the 1Q as Robertson made her tie-breaking THREE at the 4:18 mark of the quarter to make the score 16-11 in favor of the Sooners. BIG HIGH-THREE to T-Rob on the record. And she accomplished the record in one game less than Mitchell. OU shot very well in the 1Q as they were 10-18 from the floor and 6 of 10 from three's including 3 from T-Rob. Iowa State stayed in the quarter with free throws as they made 6 of 8 from the charity stripe. Uncharacteristically, Llanusa and Tot had two fouls in the quarter.
Iowa State rebounded in the 2Q to outscore OU by 8 points to create a 42-42 tie at half. OU did not shoot badly in the quarter but they had no THREE's in the quarter. Iowa State shot 5% points better than OU at 47.1% and did make 3 THREE's in the quarter.
The 3rd quarter saw Oklahoma start quickly as they scored 8 straight points to open play and led 50-42 at the 7:25 mark of the quarter. But before you could say, "good start", Iowa State roared back to outscore OU 21-3 to take a 63-53 point with 1:06 left in the 3Q. Joens made a bucket and Culliton made a free shot for the only Sooner points in that stretch of time. Robertson made another 3 to close the quarter as OU trailed 65-56. Oklahoma shot 19.0% in the quarter with only 1 bucket made inside the arc in 16 tries. They were 3 of 5 from 3-point territory. Iowa State shot 50% from the field in the quarter. Ou had 6 offensive rebounds in the quarter and scored only 2 second-chance points in the quarter.
The Sooners fought to get back into the game in the 4th quarter and got as close as 3 points at the 8:04 mark when Robertson made a backdoor layup to make the score 66-63. One last-ditch effort by Robertson on a 4-point play made the score 71-68 to trail by 3 again at the 4:32 mark. Behind largely free shots, Iowa State then closed it with 15 more points to OU's 10 to win the game 86-78.
In a trend that is troubling, Iowa State scored 30 points from the free throw line to OU's 11. A 19-point deficit. A Huge Difference. OU was called for 29 fouls to the Cyclones 15 which is a significant difference, but not as great as the 20 extra shots at the line. Oklahoma has to stop the slapping, reaching, ticky-tack fouls that they commit. The have to get their hands up and when the other team has the ball secured, stop trying to get a steal and get back on defense.
Robertson played very well on Saturday with 25 points and 80% shooting from the field. LLanusa and Williams followed with 14 and 13 points, but I think neither would say that they played well. Certainly not well enough. It seems that LLanusa has maybe hit some sort of 'wall". I looked back and Llanusa last played in 20 ball games (ike she has this year) in the 2019-2020 season. Three years ago Coming off of major knee surgery which is its own type of toll on a body, I wonder if she is tired a bit. She was playing very well about 2 weeks ago for the Sooners. Williams was also playing well last week as she was the Big 12 Player of the Week.
As an example of the play yesterday, Tot/Llanusa/Williams/Vann were 16 of 46 from the field and 5 of 14 from 3-point. I think in this case against a good Iowa State team, the Sooners needed more from them.
Iowa State gets a great deal of effort and good play from the 4 players of Ashley Joens (tremendous player), Fritz, Ryan and Donarski. They all played 36+ minutes yesterday. For OU only Robertson played more than 29 minutes.
OU has a chance to get things back on track this next week. They play TCU on Tuesday night in LNC at 6 PM and then they host West Virginia on Saturday at 2 PM in LNC. Next week, Baylor plays at Kansas at home and at Iowa State. Iowa State plays at K-State before the Baylor game. Texas plays at West Virginia and at Kansas. If the Sooners take care of their business, maybe they will find themselves back in a 1st place tie at the end of the week.
Good luck to the Sooner Women next week.
Boomer Sooner!
Echo Believer's comments. There's a concerning inconsistency to the OU women's game. Believer and I have conferred on this often and think it has something to do with substitution patterns. Barring foul trouble, I just think the starters have got to be out there more against the better teams.
Robertson was on the floor for 32 minutes vs. ISU (and she had 25 points), Tot for 30, Madi for 25, Ana for 29. This is more playing time the starting core than it has had in recent games. Liz Scott was only out there for 12 minutes, mostly due to foul trouble, and OU missed an opportunity to win a key matchup inside. (BTW, minutes for ISU's starters: Joens 37, Donarski 40, Ryan 40, Fritz 38 and Kane 23).
I think they've got to have a better answer against a team with an elite scorer like Joens, who lit us up for 32 points. When there's someone on the other team like that, you've got to make someone else beat you. When we were in that zone, ISU simply moved Joens around the arc and used quick passing to find her open, with the nearest Sooner scrambling (usually unsuccessfully) to close down on her. I know: easier said than done. But you've got to work to find something that keeps her under 25.
On the fouling, agree also. And, unfortunately, I believe OU has the reputation (some of it deserved) for slapping down and other cheap fouls. Referees aren't deaf to the other team's bench complaining about that stuff. So OU has to do something to try to reduce what has become a serious disadvantage at the foul line. ISU shot 20 more free throws than OU. Some of that is late fouling you have to do when you're behind, but this is a familiar problem. The Sooners are one of only two Big XII teams to have been out-chanced at the FT line in conference games. OU is a negative-37 in free throw attempts compared to opponents' attempts. (I guess other conspiracy types will not be surprised to learn Texas is the other, at negative-12.) Get this: For the league slate, ISU has attempted 112 more FTs than their opponents. OU has got to get better here.
Robertson was on the floor for 32 minutes vs. ISU (and she had 25 points), Tot for 30, Madi for 25, Ana for 29. This is more playing time the starting core than it has had in recent games. Liz Scott was only out there for 12 minutes, mostly due to foul trouble, and OU missed an opportunity to win a key matchup inside. (BTW, minutes for ISU's starters: Joens 37, Donarski 40, Ryan 40, Fritz 38 and Kane 23).
I think they've got to have a better answer against a team with an elite scorer like Joens, who lit us up for 32 points. When there's someone on the other team like that, you've got to make someone else beat you. When we were in that zone, ISU simply moved Joens around the arc and used quick passing to find her open, with the nearest Sooner scrambling (usually unsuccessfully) to close down on her. I know: easier said than done. But you've got to work to find something that keeps her under 25.
On the fouling, agree also. And, unfortunately, I believe OU has the reputation (some of it deserved) for slapping down and other cheap fouls. Referees aren't deaf to the other team's bench complaining about that stuff. So OU has to do something to try to reduce what has become a serious disadvantage at the foul line. ISU shot 20 more free throws than OU. Some of that is late fouling you have to do when you're behind, but this is a familiar problem. The Sooners are one of only two Big XII teams to have been out-chanced at the FT line in conference games. OU is a negative-37 in free throw attempts compared to opponents' attempts. (I guess other conspiracy types will not be surprised to learn Texas is the other, at negative-12.) Get this: For the league slate, ISU has attempted 112 more FTs than their opponents. OU has got to get better here.
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