Sooners beat #2 KSU

[SwampSooner]

OU 66 - KSU 63

[EMan]

Once again they made it more interesting than I'd like it to be by missing some FTs while trying to protect the lead, but they also made the plays down the stretch they needed to pull out the victory. But let's also be fair and note that Ayoka Lee did not play for KSU tonight. She was in a walking boot. Not saying OU still wouldn't have won, but that also probably made the task a bit easier. Still, an outstanding win tonight and now tied for first in the Big 12 with KSU.

[TN Sooner]

What a great win by this team. I don’t feel like we were close to our best, but we scrapped and scraped and pulled out a victory. Impressive.

Saw in a story that OU led the Big 12 in turnovers (in a GOOD way), which surprised me. I checked Big 12 web site, but they show us well down the pack for the season, but don’t break out the Big 12 only stats. I then checked OU game notes and saw they were citing that stat and that it was only Big 12 games. This is incredible for this team and encouraging for this team achieving what I still think is a high ceiling.

[OUBeliever56A]

Well this post is late - It seems I forgot to post my pre-game note about the game. Here it is and I will post my post-game comments after.

7-1 Oklahoma Hosts K-State 9-0 in Big 12 W BB Matchup- Wed 6 PM!

Kansas State (9-0), the 1st Place Big 12 team and #2 Ranked team in the country, comes to Lloyd Noble Center on Wednesday night for a 6 PM Game against Oklahoma (7-1), the 2nd Place Big 12 Team. This week the Sooners moved back in the AP rankings as a team that received votes in the #31 spot. OU now holds a NET ranking of 44 after 5 straight wins in the Big 12 while K-State holds the #8 Net ranking after 14 straight wins (8 wins in the Big 12 plus one forfeit from TCU).

The 6 PM game will be broadcast on ESPN+. There is no information about the ESPN+ announcers or the radio call for the game. The Women's games are usually on either 1400 AM or 107.7 FM. You can try either one if you would like the radio call of the game.

The two teams met earlier on Jan 10th in Manhattan and K-state won 74-57. The Wildcats played with Ayoka Lee in the earlier game but she will not play on Wednesday night as she is injured and is expected to be out for another two weeks. Here is the Sooner staff writers article for the game.

https://soonersports.com/news/2024/1/30 ... -2-k-state

Playing the rematch with K-State without Lee in the lineup is a break for OU. It changes things quite a bit. The Wildcats still have Sundell #4, Gregory #12, J Glenn #3 and B Glenn #5 as starters which is a strong four players with versatility and experience on the floor. Sanchez, a 6'3" Forward has been starting for K-State for Lee. Sanchez scores 6.1 Points and grabs 4.3 rebounds and plays about 16 minutes a game. 6th-woman, Walker still comes of the bench effectively to play 20 minutes a game scoring 8.0 Points and 3.9 rebounds Maupin, another 6'3" Forward has picked up minutes with Lee being out of the lineup. The three, Sanchez, Walker and Maupin have scored 24 points in the last 3 games with Lee absent. One of the 3 plyers have had a game of at least 15 points in those three games. The last player to get usual minutes is Sides who plays 11+ minutes and is a guard.

Without Lee in the game, K-State tends to play faster an tries to get up and down the floor. That matches what Oklahoma wants to do so it could be a fast-paced game. The three constants of winning basketball applies fully to this game, 1) Take care of the basketball, 2) Shoot the ball well in all 3 phases and 3) Rebound effectively. Oklahoma has to continue their excellent ball handling with 8 of the last nine games having less that 14 turnovers. In Big 12 play, the Sooners have a 2 to 1 ration of steal/assists to turnovers. The shooting for Oklahoma is probably a primary key and the hardest to improve upon. If they shoot well, almost everything else falls into place. Sometimes the choice of the shots is questionable, sometimes they are forced a bit too much and sometimes is just hard to get the ball into the basket from close range for the Sooners. The Sooner rebounding is a strength and that should continue against K-State.

On defense, Tucker may get a few more minutes as the Sooners try to slow down both Sundell and Gregory. OU has a little trouble matching up with both of them with their starters on the floor. The 6'1" J Glenn causes a matchup issue also with Keyes and Tot and that makes Tucker more valuable for the Sooners. I think the Sooners could have the advantage inside against the Lee-'less' Wildcats. I do not think Lee's replacement, Sanchez, will hurt the Sooners but she can make a three if left open. When Walker is on the floor, the Sooners can matchup with te 5'8" guard but she can move. When Maupin is on the floor at 6'3", she plays more outside than inside on offense. A mobile Sooners F/C needs to guard Maupin or maybe that job goes to Verhulst.

It the ball goes in the bucket tomorrow night for the Sooners, they could well win the rematch with Kansas State. They have been playing well and when thy falter a bit, they play with a great deal of persistence and effort to help keep themselves even. The game should be close (+/- 10 points) and those small runs will be be important to counter during the game. A six-game winning streak for OU would look good with a win. In a sense, the Sooners are laying with house money against Kansas State. Hopefully they play free from pressure and just have fun watching the ball hit nothing but net, often. Good luck to the Sooner Woman tomorrow night.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Sooners, now 8-1 in conference play, upset the #2 rated Kansas State Wildcats last night in LNC 66-63 in a very big win for OU Women's Basketball in this season. Kansas State dropped to a 9-1 record in the Big 12 including 1 forfeit from TCU earlier in the season. The game was a close game throughout with neither team leading by more than 7 points. Th 7 point lead by Kansas State was in the first 2 minutes of the game. The difference in the scoring in each quarter by both teams was only 2 points until the 4th quarter when OU outscored K-State 15-10.

To me, the game was determined by three things.

1. The Oklahoma Defensive Effort - The Sooners played very good defense and only committed 10 fouls in the game. That tuned into only 10 free throws for K-State which was key as they shot 80% from the charity stripe. I thought Lexi Keys and Kennedy Tucker played very good defense. I thought Verhulst rebounded well, especially late in the game. I thought the changing defense between player-on-player to zone by Oklahoma was effective. I thought in particular the defense against Gregory by OU was strong and that was a key as Gregory only scored 5 points. The Sooners also picked up 9 steals in the game.

My pregame statement of "I do not think Lee's replacement, Sanchez, will hurt the Sooners but she can make a three if left open" was somewhat right but not very accurate. Sanchez scored 18 points to lead K-State as she made 3 three's and 4 two-point buckets. OU had some trouble matching up with Sanchez while playing strong defense elsewhere. to hold K-State to only 5 second chance points was tremendous.

2. The play of Skylar Vann - Vann just gets the job done, outside and inside on offense and plays strong solid defense inside for the Sooners. Vann scored 21 points and pulled down 8 rebounds with 3 assists. In the last three years, I think Vann is playing as well for the Sooners in 2024 as any Sooner player has consistently played over that time. For a player that is not that tall, not that fast or quick and she doesn't jump that well, but someway, she just plays extremely well. She is smart and has a hustle-mindset when it counts. She has become the go-to scorer for OU in 2024.

3. The play and leadership of Nevaeh Tot - Tot is not a scorer, but she takes a shot when needed. Her job is to run the offense, get the Sooners up and down the court and to get the ball moving on offense. She had 6 assists and 3 steals last night against one turnover while scoring 6 points in 35 minutes. She did a good job of not getting 'posted-up' up by the bigger K-State guards through switches and just pushing back at times against the K-State player. OU needed Tot on the floor for all 35+ minutes last night. I think Tot's play has been instrumental in the drop of Sooner turnovers. The Sooner only committed 10 ball handling errors last night. Oklahoma had 30 assists and steals to their 10 turnovers for a 3-to-1 ratio which is very good.

Oklahoma also shot well from three-point territory with Keys and Joens making 3 long-range shots last night. Tot, Vann and Kennedy added one each. The incidental stats were good for OU last night also. The Sooners scored 16 points to 8 off of turnovers. They scored 28 points in the paint to K-State's 20. The Sooners had 134 fast break points to 4 for the Wildcats and the Sooners picked up 22 bench points to only 9 for K-State.

The Sooner bench points came from Joens (10), Johnson (5), Tucker (4) and Culliton (3).

Here is what Coach Jenny Baranczyk said after the game, "What a great game for not just women's basketball, obviously, but the Big 12 conference, Kansas State is obviously a very good basketball team ... and I'm continually impressed by the poise that we had in that fourth quarter and how much growth this team has actually had and it's been really fun to watch."

The Oklahoma Sooners have now won five games in a row, which currently leads the Big 12 along with West Virginia right now. Oklahoma travels to Stillwater to play Oklahoma State (4-6) in a 4 PM game. Kansas State, a half game ahead of the Sooners, plays at Texas on Sunday. Could it be that with a win on Saturday against the Cowgirls that the Sooners could be in first place on Monday morning? It could happen.

Good luck to the Sooner Women BB Team on Saturday.

Boomer Sooner!

[EMan]

Skylar kind of reminds me of a men's player from back in the day, William Davis. Davis wasn't overly tall but just had a knack for coming up with rebounds and scoring against much taller players. Skylar is similar. She just seems to have a nose for playing basketball and it serves her well.

I also thought OU played pretty well on defense, but there were definitely moments in the second half when K. St. found a look at an open 3. In the third qtr, those 3's were falling, but as the game wore on in the 4th and the pressure ramped up, the Cats weren't so fortunate. Meanwhile, the Sooners once again rose to the occasion down the stretch and made the big plays they needed to grab the lead. But I gotta tell you, the FT line was a real adventure trying to protect the lead against both Texas* and KSU. In both games OU could've maintained 2-possession leads late if they had hit both FTs. I freely admit I got completely spoiled by having Taylor Robertson on the court late in the game with the lead. A solid gold FT shooter is invaluable in those situations. Hopefully, this experience will pay dividends going forward.

On a completely different note, last night we noticed a couple of Sooner alums were in attendance, Madi Williams and Ana Llanusa. And while I can't confirm it, it sure looked like Kelbie Washington was there as well. It may have just been someone who resembled her but it was an uncanny resemblance if it wasn't her.

[OUBeliever56A]

On a completely different note, last night we noticed a couple of Sooner alums were in attendance, Madi Williams and Ana Llanusa. And while I can't confirm it, it sure looked like Kelbie Washington was there as well. It may have just been someone who resembled her but it was an uncanny resemblance if it wasn't her.

Williams, Llanusa and Nydia Lampkin were there. They threw out T-Shirts at one point in the game. Kelbie Washington was also there and helped in that effort.

[TN Sooner]

Believer56 said:

“ For a player that is not that tall, not that fast or quick and she doesn't jump that well, but someway, she just plays extremely well.”

56 - this is a spectacular description of Vann. I love it!

She can play on my team anytime. Sometimes players with this sort of grit turn into good coaches. I don’t know what Sky has in mind for her future, but I think she could be a good coach.

[EMan]

BTW, did anyone else notice on the last play of the game that Jaelyn Glenn for KSU was clearly standing an entire foot out of bounds before throwing the ball to Serena Sundell for that last 3 point attempt to tie? Our seats are right along that baseline and we had a perfect view of it. What's sad is, the ref also had the same view we had and didn't call it. If that last shot had gone in to send it to OT that would've been about as egregious of a bad no-call as I've seen in a long time. That was incompetency at its finest.

[OUBeliever56A]

I did see that......

[TN Sooner]

Coach Jennie “commented” on it during her show at Rudy’s tonight. Actually, she said she couldn’t comment on it.

Out of bounds plays in the final minute (May be 2 minutes?) are reviewable, so we can hope that the replays would have fixed this, had it mattered.