www.soonertimes.com

In their annual Milatary Appeciation Game, the Oklahoma Women's Basketball Team will host the Virginia Cavaliers in an 8 PM tipoff at Lloyd Noble Center. The game is on the SECN channel on my OEC Cable service. That usually means you can find it also on the SECN+ or ESPN+ channells if you need to do that.

The two teams met in early preseason last year when the Sooners defeated the Cavaliers on November 19th in Charlottesville 82-67 as five Sooners scored in double-digit points led by Vann and Verhulst who scored 20 and 15 respectively. The win raised OU's record to 5-0 early last season. The loss dropped Virginia to 3-1. Virginia finished the 2023-2024 season with a 16-16 record and played in the Women's NIT Tourney at the end of the year going 1-1.

This year, Viginia is off to a strong start. In their exhibition game and in their first game against American University, the Cavaliers have scored 104 points. They have given up 46 and 68 points in those two games. Virginia does have some size as they will likley start a lineup with a 6'7" Center and Forwards who are 6'3" and 6'2" with two bigs coming off the bench who are both 6'4". A starting forward is a freshman, Brena Hurd, who scored 18 points in the game against American. A Forward sub, Latasha Lattimore scored 15 points off the bench. So the Sooners and their new Center, Raegan Beers, Sklyar Vann and Liz Scott will be tested inside.

The guards for Virginia are led by Kymora Johnson who scored 21 against American. A 6'2" sub at Guard, Olivia McGhee scored 12 off the bench against American.

Virginia shot 52% from the field and 36% from beyond the arc and 71% from the charity stripe. Virginia outrebounded American 53-36 with 10 blocks. Virginia had good assists (26), turnovers (14) and steal numbers (9) as well.

Oklahoma, in the their win over Southern shot 48% from the floor and 14% behind the 3-point line and 65% from the free throw line. They outrebounded Southern 54-21 and had 4 blocks. The Sooners logged 17 assists, 8 turnovers and 4 steals.

That all indicates to me that the Sooners must play better than they on Monday night in their win over Southern. Last year in the game against Virginia, the Sooners shot 48% from the field, 43% from beyond the 3-point line and 75% from the free throw line. The Sooners disched out 22 assists but did turnover the ball 24 times and had 6 blocks.

I expect the same starters for OU on Friday night.

Beers at Center, Vann at the PF spot, Williams at the Small Forward spot, Verhulst at the shooting guard and Tot at the point. Early substitues will likley be Liz Scott, Lexy Keys, Zya Vann, Audrey Joens and probably Kiersten Johnson. I also expect to see Beatrice Culliton and Reyna Scott play in the game. I thnk the Sooners will need to keep 3 of Beers, Vann, Williams, Liiz Scott, Johnson and Culliton in the game much of the time. Two will be required at all times as Verhulst can slide down inside the lane if needed.

If the Sooners want to go small and play the running game to the max, they can go to a 'last years' lineup with Vann, Williams, Verhulst, Tot and Keys on the court. Maybe Joens or Zya Vann make that lineup as well.

I hope their is a much better crowd at the game on Friday night to help the Sooners against Virginia.

Good luck to the Sooners against the Cavaliers.

Boomer Sooner!

Here is the social media post about the Military Appreciation Night on Friday.

Here is the pre-game article by the OU Athletics Communications about the game tonight with Virginia at LNC. Tipoff is at 8;OO PM. The game is on the SECN channel and the "+" package.

https://soonersports.com/news/2024/11/7 ... tion-night

Good luck to the Sooner Women tonight.

Boomer Sooner!

A dominating win last night! I have no idea how good Virginia is (not very would be my guess) but they had no one that could remotely stop OU inside. Kind of reminded me of the Sooners over the recent past when facing an opponent with a good inside game. OU actually shot pretty poorly from the outside (and at the FT line) but they were so dominant inside it made zero difference. Beers had a double-double 2 minutes into the second quarter. And that's pretty much how the rest of the game went.

A little over 4,000 fans at Lloyd Noble Center saw a dominant performance by the Oklahoma Sooners over the Virginia Cavaliers. BTW, why was there just 4,000 fans there? C'mom Sooner fans, you need to show up to support this team. They are stong, deep and they play a stule of play that is easy to be excited about. We have one of the best young coaches in the country and the team just performs. The addition of Raegan Beers for the Sooners looks to be a game changer for the program. Get on board the Sooner Schooner and supprt this team.

The Oklahoma Sooner routed Virginia 95 to 51 as they led at the quarter marks, 25-15 after the 1Q, 46-26 at the half, 81-43 after 3Q. The Sooners were in control just baout every minute of the game. The Sooners outrebounded the taller Cavaliers 66 to 39 including 24 offensive rebounds. Beers and Skylar Vann both recorded double-digits rebounds as Beers had 14 and Vann had 10. Keirsten Johnson also pulled down 8 in relief in the paint.

The five Sooner starters were; Navaeh Tot, Payton Verhulst, Sahara Williams, Skylar Vann and Raegan Beers. As a group they were 25 of 49 from the field for 51.0% and they were 6 of 18 from 3-point range for .33.3%. They scored 61 points. In an interesting note, Navaeh Tot has not scored yet this season and she has only taken 2 shots in 2 games. Last night, tot had 3 assists and 4 steals. Beers had her second double-double with another 20+ point and 10+ rebound game as she scored 26 and pulled down those 14 boards. Sahara Williams added 14 points on several athletic moves, and 4 boards. Skylar Vann added 8 points and her 10 boards. Payton Verhulst scored 13 points and had 4 boards with 5 assists. The five Sooner starters played no less than 20:44 minutes (Williams) and no more than 22:33 minutes (S Vann).

The second wave of Sooners, Zya Vann G, Lexy Keys G, Liz Scott C, Keirsten Johnson F, Auberey Joens F also played pretty well as they added 23 points on 33.3% shooting from the field and 12 rebounds. They all played at least 9:33 minutes (Z Vann) an no more than 17:45 minutes (Keys). Z Vann and Keys both played good defense and Johnson was good on the boards with 4 offensive and 4 defensive boards. Johnson and L Scott scored 8 points each.

The last four Sooners to play were Beatrice Culliton, Ryna Scott, Caya Smith and Landy Allen. (Yes, Landry Allen played and will not red-shirt). Culliton and R Scott played 11:10 and 9:50 minutes. Culliton pulled down 4 rebounds while R Scott played well on 5 of 6 shooting and scoing 10 points with 2 boards and 2 steals. Scott may have earned more minutes next game. C Smith and Allen added 1 free throw and 2 rebounds.

The team stats included 24 assists, 14 turnovers and 16 steals in the game. Those rations are good enough but there were at least four 'uncalled' for turnovers last night.

The Sooners played all 14 of their players last night.

OU shot 58.6% (34 of 58) inside the 3-point line and only 14.3 % (6 of 32) from beyond the 3-point line. Just imagine if they would have shot well from long distance. They need to shoot some extra free throws in practice as they were 9 of 15 for 60.0%.

Here is the post-win article written by the OU Athletics Communications group.

https://soonersports.com/news/2024/11/8 ... -in-norman

Beers had made a tremndous positive difference in the Sooners. She is good down deep in the paint on offense and on defense. She even made a "3" last night that was all 'swish' when it went in. Coach Jenny has inserted the post down low and not changed the offense noticeably. Beers has scored 20 plus in two games and really not demanded the ball or has she been focused. She just gets hers as she is open down low and she can score with both hands easily. She made a nice dribble, spin left handed layup last night on a move that started above the top of the key. It was sweet.

The Sooners did play like the #10 team in the country last night. Probably better than that.

Their next game is Wednesday at 10:30 AM for the annual Field Trip day. LNC will be full of the kids from all over the state in attendance. They will play Western Carolina. The Catamounts (a Cat of the Mountain) is 2-0 so far in the early season with wins over Warren Wilsom and Campbell.

It was a thorough win in just about every way for the Sooners last night. (Need better 3-point shooting is all.)

Boomer Sooner!

15% from 3 and 60% from free throw line and still scored 95!?! Just amazing.

Somewhere late in 2nd quarter, I was complaining about the 3’s and then I noted we had 40 already. Amazing to get off that many shots.

I like how Beers was officiated last night. She did not shy from contact (Physical, but pretty clean) at either end of the court and didn’t get any cheap fouls. I suspect we’ll have games where the physical play is officiated aggressively and we deal with some foul trouble.

With Beers wearing out the other team bigs, KJ is going to be very effective in her minutes - I think she’s going to have a good year.

Reina looked really good in her minutes last night.

It is fun to watch how Jenny is experimenting with her players - at one point, I think we had Beers, KJ and Bea on the floor at the same time. I’ve never closely followed a team that truly had the ability to go 10-12 players deep. Keep the best 7 fresh.

Finally - I echo 56’s sentiment about fans and he clearly earns the right to chastise Those not in attendance. I don’t have the same luxury, since I’m not in attendance - kind of hard from 700 miles away. But this is a team I would love to be near Norman for.