Sooner Women's BB in Waco to Play Baylor in Top-3 Big 12 Matchup

[OUBeliever56A]

The 2nd Place, 16th-ranked Oklahoma Sooners Women's Basketball Team will be in Waco and the Ferrell Center to play the Baylor Bears. Baylor is in 3rd Place in the Big 12 conference and for some reason unranked (but RV#26) in the AP Poll. In the NET rankings Baylor is rated twice as high (or better) with a #21 ranking while OU has a #42 ranking. OU is 8-3 in conference while Baylor is 7-3.

To me, it is important for OU to split with the top four teams in the Big 12. The Sooners have already split with Iowa State (winning in LNC and losing in Ames). But the Sooners dropped both of their first go-round games against Baylor (in LNC) and Texas (in Austin). The Sooners need to even up the Baylor series tonight with a win on the road in Waco.

The game will air on ESPN+ with John Morris and Jim Haller, with Chris Plank providing play-by-play on the Sooner Radio Network.

Here is the staff writers article about the OU - Baylor contest tonight at 7 PM.

https://soonersports.com/news/2023/2/6/ ... st-in-waco

Last year, the Sooners finished 4th in the Big 12 with a 12-6 record. One game into the second round of the conference schedule the Soones are 8-3. They have played I-State twice however and not played K-State yet. That should be a bit of an advantage for the Sooners the remainder of the second round of the conference schedule. As part of that 2021-2022 season OU swept the Baylor series with aa 83-77 win in Norman and a 78-77 win in Waco.

Earlier this season the Sooners dropped their game at home in LNC 70-81. The Sooners played poorly in the 1st and 3rd quarters of the game as they were outscored 44-20 by Baylor in those 2 quarters. The Sooners cannot afford to repeat that performance tonight in Waco. The Baylor team has really changed. Last season the dominated inside with strong forwards that could score. The Baylor guard play was good, but the ball worked inside out most of the time for shots. This season, the Baylor team is based around their three starting guards, Andrews, Asberry and Owens. Baylor gets good play inside from Bickle, Littlepage-Buggs and Fontleroy. Last week, Baylor had two Players of the Week in Andrews and Littlepage-Buggs.

Baylor presents matchup issues for OU. Their three guards are hard for the Sooners to matchup with by Tot, Llanusa and Robertson. OU has to work Tucker into the lineup to help with the defense when paying woman-to-woman defense. But Baylor discovered how to attack OU's zone last season and they did that at times earlier this year. But the guards for Baylor scored 53 points against the Sooners in LNC. When OU played woman-up, the guards went by the Sooners to the bucket. When OU played zone, Baylor guards shot over the zone. It is a difficult game on defense for OU this season. Tonight, maybe Reyna Scott gets a chance to play more for her size and defense as a guard. If she does and plays well, it could help the Sooners.

I think when Robertson and Joens are in the game defensively, the Sooners will likely play a zone. Maybe they will use the 2-3 zone which was a new wrinkle against West Virginia last game. I thought that defensive scheme was an improvement for the Sooners. They need to work a bit on the hand-off between between the outside players on the wing on each side, but I thought the Sooners were in much better position in inside, especially on the backside of the zone. If the Sooners can slow down the Baylor guards and play strong inside the Sooners should be able to win tonight on the road.

Staying out of foul trouble inside will be a key for OU. Liz Scott, Maddie Williams and Skylar Vann must be able to play lots of minutes tonight. If needed, Culliton and Johnson must provide solid minutes inside as well. This is a big key for OU to be able to be in the game and a position to win the game. I will be watching this and the 3rd guard play against the Baylor guards.

Good luck tonight to the Sooners!

Boomer Sooner!

[EMan]

Nice win tonight! 98-92 in OT. For the most part, the Sooners trailed the entire game until Taylor nailed a 3-pointer with 14 secs left to tie it up. After that, OU pretty much owned the OT session.

[TN Sooner]

Gosh what a frustrating game to watch. silly offensive fouls and turnovers early in the game and then several missed shots within 4 feet of the bucket in the second half. Skirmish that resulted in 4 bailor free throws plus the ball in the final seconds of the 3rd. Felt like the Sooners were the better team thru out but just kept self imploding. I almost turned it off 4-5 times. Glad that I didn’t.

But the Sooners never quit and just kept pushing, and dominated in overtime. Great win!

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Sooner Women's Basketball team flirted with a loss several times last night. At times, it looked like Baylor would win the game behind a very strong game by Bickle and Andrews the Bears of Baylor had as much as a 12 point lead a couple of times, I think. Baylor led for over 39 minutes of the 45 minutes of play. In fact, the Sooners never led until in the overtime period. Somehow, someway, the Sooners made a big comeback in the final 3 minutes of the 4th quarter to tie the game at 83-83 with 14 seconds left in the final quarter of play.

The Sooners, then played well in the overtime period outscoring Baylor 15-9 to win the game by 6 points in a final score of 98-92.

In those final 5 minutes of the 4Q, the two 'centers' for the Sooners led the way. Liz Scott scored 7 straight points on a 3-point play, and two inside buckets to start the comeback. Skylar Vann then took over as she scored 6 straight points. Williams and Tot added 2 points each to bring the Sooners close. Then with around 18 seconds left the Sooners caused a turnover as they pressed Baylor on the Sooner end of the court. The ball wa tipped away and Llanusa grabbed the ball and headed towards the bucket as the Sooners were down by 3 points. She drew the defense to her, and then Llanusa saw Taylor Robertson out on the left wing standing alone at the 3-point line. Llanusa's pass on the move was on target. T-Rob caught the pass and calmly put up the shot to tie the game. She held her right hand high as the ball reached the rim, Swish! Tie-Ball Game! The Sooner bench was all standing, I was standing in my living room!

But wait, there were 14 seconds left. Baylor called time and tried to get off a good shot but they were unable to do that as OU played good defense without fouling to send the game into overtime.

Oklahoma started the overtime well taking an early lead. But Baylor tied it at 90-90 with 1:58 left in OT. Llanusa made two free throws for OU. Littlepage-Buggs made a 2 pint bucket for Baylor, tied at 92-92. Williams made a bucket inside on an assist from Vann to put the Sooners up by two point. Vann then stole the ball on defense, which led to Llanusa making one of two free throws to lead by 3 at 95-92. Baylor tried to get a shot inside up but Williams blocked the shot which led to a Baylor foul on Tot. Tot made both free shots to lead by 5. Bickle followed with a poor attempt to make a 3-pointer as the air ball went out of bounds. Baylor fouled Robertson, with 2 seconds left. T-Rob missed first free throw for only her 3rd miss all season from the charity stripe. She then made the second one as it rattled around the rim and fell in. Sooners up 98-92. Ball game over as Baylor threw up a long three.

A good result that OU produced with strong play late in the game. It is probably a game that Baylor will feel bad about. It is game for Oklahoma to build upon.

Here is the staff writers article about the game.

https://soonersports.com/news/2023/2/7/ ... n-overtime

Five Sooners scored in double figures in the game. Llanusa and Vann had 20 points each. Robertson had 14, Tot had 13. Liz Scott had 11. Williams added nine. Bench players Tucker, Joens and Culliton scored 5, 4 and 2 points.

Williams pulled down 10 rebounds, L Scott and Vann pulled down 8 and 6 boards. Tot, Llanusa and Vann had 5 assists.

Coach Baranczyk shortened her bench last night. In 45 minutes of play, Tot, Llanusa, Williams, Robertson and Vann all played more than 30 minutes. Foul trouble limited L Scott to 15 minutes but her play and scoring in the 4th was key in the game. I thought Tucker added some strong defense and 5 points in her 18 minutes of play.

The Sooners will have an extra day off now with a Tuesday game before they play again on Saturday. The Sooners will take their 9-3 conference record into Manhattan, KS on Saturday for a 1 PM tip-off to play Kansas State where they will say hello to Gabby Gregory who transferred to the Wildcats after last season. Gregory is averaging 19.5 PPG for K-State. It looks like the game will be on ESPNU.

In other action last night OSU defeated West Virginia 76-65. OSU moves to 7-5 in Big 12 play. Tonight, Texas (8-3 in conference) hosts Texas Tech while Kansas hosts TCU in the only other mid-week games this week.

Boomer Sooner!