Sooner Women BB on the Road @ WV: Can they win 10 in-a-row?

[OUBeliever56A]

The 1st Place Oklahoma Sooners (12-1) are in Morgantown, WV today in a Noon tip-off game against a very good Mountaineers (10-3) team that is ranked #24/#23. Oklahoma is ranked #23/#25. This game should be very close as it does match two of the best teams in the Big 12. West Virginia have won 8 of their last 9 games losing only to Baylor in Waco in that stretch. Oklahoma has won 9 conference games in a row.

Here is the Sooner staff writers article about the game.

https://soonersports.com/news/2024/2/16 ... n-saturday

The Sooners lead the series with WV at 16-9, including a 6-5 advantage in Morgantown where OU has won six straight and not lost since 2017. Coach Baranczyk is 4-0 vs. the Mountaineers and OU has won the last five meetings overall.

The main job for the Sooners today will be to handle the WV leading scorer. #11 Quinerly scores 18.8 PPG in 31 minutes a game. She is a 5'8" guard. I hope that Keys and Tucker play her very tough today. WV has started the same lineup all season as all five starters have started every game. Four of the starters play over 31 minutes a game. They rotate 3 bigs in the fifth spot during the game and play with two in the game for a bit each game. They are a 4 guard team most of the time.

The game will be televised on ESPN+ today. There is a Live Stats, ESPN+ and Live Radio link in the article above.

Good luck to the Sooner Women today as they try to move one game closer to the Big 12 Title.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

I have already read predictions of gloom and doom about the Sooner Women's basketball team after their loss yesterday. My take on the loss is this. IF the Sooners can play a game with 25 turnovers, get outscored by the other team's bench by 17 points and give up 23 points off of turnovers AND still be in the game in final seconds, I am not amazed at the resiliency of the team and while disappointed about the loss, I am not defeated in any way, and I don't think the Sooners are either. The Sooners did lose to West Virginia in Morgantown, WV by the score of 70-66. But there might be a small victory in not playing all that well and still almost pulling out a win for the Sooners.

The Sooners led the game at the end of the third quarter by the score of 48-47. But the 4th quarter opened with the Sooners committing 3 turnovers in their first four possessions and trailed 52-48 quickly. A Tot 3-pointer closed the gap to 52-51 before five straight points by West Virginia was scored another OU turnover to make the score 56-51. The lead was cut to only two points at 54-56 and 58-60 before Verhulst brought OU to within only 1 point at 61-62 with 1:56 left in the game.

At that point, La'Naiye Quinerly took over for West Virginia and scored 4 straight points. OU had held Quinerly in check with Keyes and Tucker pacing her. The Sooners trailed 61-65 at that point with 57 second left. West Virginia then made 2 free throws to make it 61-67. Another free throw after a forced foul by OU made it 61-68 and things looked bleak for the Sooners. But somehow, the Sooners made a layup and a 3 point shot by Tot sandwiched around a WV turnover to trail by only 2 points at 66-68.

Another forced foul by OU sent a WV player to the line with 2 free throws with 6 seconds left. WV missed both shots to give OU a shot at a win. Tucker grabbed the rebound for OU and the Sooners raced down the floor as Tot took the ball the bucket and got fouled. She was at the line for a 2 free throws to tie the game with 1 second left. She missed the first one which meant the Sooners needed a miss and a rebound put back to tie the score. The Sooners were called for a lane violation on the 'made' free throw by Tot so the score remained 66-68. The Sooners fouled again and this time WV made their two free throws to make the final score 70-66. OU got off a three-point shot to end the game but the game was over.

Verhulst led Oklahoma with 20 points and 7 rebounds. Tot and Keyes added 12 and 11 points. Vann scored 11 points with 14 rebounds for a double-double. Scott added 6, Johnson added 4 and Williams scored 2 for the Sooners. OU won the rebound battle by 10 at 41 to 31. Culliton added 5 to that rebound advantage along with Tucker's 3 and Johnson's 4.

As I said above. OU had 25 turnovers and WV scored 23 points off those turnovers. That is really hard to overcome. WV has had a habit of causing 20+ turnovers this season. They really get in the passing lanes many times for steals as they had 12 steals in this game. But another factor was the OU shooting inside the 3-point line. The Sooenrs were only 11 of 36 inside the arc yesterday for 30.6%. This stat is usually very good for OU, yesterday it was not. Meanwhile, the Sooners were very good from beyond the arc as they were 13 for 21 in the game for 61.9%. At the free throw line, the Sooners were outscored by 9 by WV. Somehow, WV had 10 more free throws on only 2 more OU fouls. Oklahoma musy have committed many shooting fouls for 2 shots. The turnovers, the shooting inside the arc and the free differential all favored WV greatly and yet OU still had a chance to win the game. Somewhere in there is a positive thread that can be found.

Yesterday in Big 12 play, Texas defeated Iowa State in Austin while K-State defeated UCF in Manhattan by 2 points. OU is in 1st place in the Big 12 with a 12-2 record. K-State, Texas and WV are in a tie for 2nd place at 11-3.

In the four games left:

OU plays @ Cincy, OSU at home, Texas at home and then @ Kansas. (Kansas has won 5 straight games since losing to OU.)
K-State hosts WV then @ Kansas, hosts Iowa State and finishes at Tech.
Texas hosts Tech, @ UCF, @ OU and closes with BYU at home.
WV plays at K-State, hosts Baylor then travels to OSU and finishes with TCU at home.

The Big 12 is still up for grabs. The two common games between the four teams are the WV at K-State and the Texas at OU games. Those two games loom huge with four games left.

Good luck to the Sooners as they play in Cincinnati on Tuesday night at 5 PM CST. I am guessing that the Sooners are staying in the NE until the Cincy game. Have a good 5 day trip away from Norman. Each game is big for the Sooners right now.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

Here is the Sooner staff writers article about the Sooners at West Virginia game on Saturday.

https://soonersports.com/news/2024/2/17 ... t-virginia

Oklahoma is at Cincinnati on Tuesday and tip is set for 5 p.m. CT on ESPN+.

Boomer Sooner!

[TN Sooner]

As badly as they played, Vaeh was driving down the lane with 20 seconds left and a chance to tie. Yes, she threw it away and the game was lost. But I’m with 56 - I’m encouraged by the fight and the fact that we had a chance to actually win this game. Big learning experience for these ladies. WV is a tremendous defensive team our guys need to figure a way to deal with that pressure.

[cushcreekmont]

What is the problem with FT shooting by OU squads? 44% against WV sounds like the horrible men's team.

Nice rebounding edge for the Sooner women, but lost too many turn overs.

They are still a very good team and should do well down the stretch (unlike the men, who might gag out the season).

[EMan]

Yes, WV has forced 20+ turnovers per game from every opponent but 2 this season, so that's obviously a huge part of their game. But in all honesty, for the first time since the win streak started, the Sooners were very careless with the ball. WV definitely forced their share of TOs yesterday, but the Sooners also made some uncharacteristically bad passes as well. Something they hadn't done much of since their conference slate started. OU is still in the driver's seat for the regular season championship by controlling their own destiny. Win out and it's theirs. Not an easy task, but definitely doable. With some other games falling their way, they may not have to win out either. So, no reason to panic.

And you'd have to be encouraged by the fact OU was down 6 and WV had the ball with 31.5 seconds to go, and with 1 second to play, Tot was at the line with a chance to tie. To come all the way back and put yourself in the position to get to OT only to miss a FT was definitely disappointing, but the team never gave up and battled to the bitter end. Gotta love that fight.