Sooner Women's Basketball: Round of 32 vs Indiana on their Court

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Sooners Women's Basketball Team (23-9) will take the floor in Bloomington, IN today about about 4:30 PM for the 5:30 PM tipoff against the Indiana Hoosiers (25-5). In the final AP rankings, the Sooners were ranked #18 and Indiana was ranked #14.

Here is the Sooner staff writers article about the game and matchup.

https://soonersports.com/news/2024/3/24 ... -on-monday

From the article:

KNOW YOUR FOE
Indiana is the No. 4 seed in the bracket and boasts a 25-5 record and finished second in the Big Ten. The Hoosiers dispatched Fairfield, 89-56, in Saturday's first-round game.

Led by All-American Mackenzie Holmes (19.7 PPG, 6.9 RPG) and sharpshooter Sara Scalia (16.5 PPG, 43.5 3P%), Indiana is among the nation's leader in field goal percentage and points per game, and are tied with Oklahoma in strength of schedule (11th). The Hoosiers are undefeated (16-0) at Assembly Hall this season and are shooting over 40% from deep on the year.

These two players are the key for Indiana. Holmes is a 6'3" Forward that makes 66.7% of her shots from the field and has made 100 free throws this season shooting 72% from the line. Scalia, a 5'10" guard has made 100 three's this year and shoots 43.5% from downtown. Somehow, the Sooners must stop these two players or at least slow them down.

But don't go to sleep on the rest of the team. The other three starters average 32 PPG and 13.8 rebounds. Only one other player plays more than 11 minutes a game for Indiana. The Hoosiers start a lineup of 5'10", 5'11", 6'2", 6'3" and 6'3". They bring in players that are 5'9" and 6'3" and 6'1".

The Sooners will have to play well inside on defense and outside on the 3-point line as 3 other players have made 35 or more three's. I think someone with size for the Sooners will need to play well inside for the Sooners.

As is always true, I think the Sooners will need to push the ball up the floor for quick shots while taking care of the ball. If the Sooners can start well shooting, their chances will rise considerably in this game. Indiana might be a tough team to rally against.

Good luck to the Sooners today at 5:30 PM.

Boomer Sooner!

[AustinTXSooner]

If we control the pace of the game, we will wear them out. We need to make sure that we rebound well.

[jmac11]

Really proud of our effort tonight. We are fortunate to have coach b at OU.

We just fell apart in the last 2 minutes of the game. Hard to watch that happen. Tough loss for sure.

A D Rob would do wonders for this team. Wishful thinking

[SwampSooner]

It might be my crimson colored glasses, but I felt we were out numbered in this game 8-5. The Hoosers were as physical as we were but were rarely called for a foul.

Their star player hit Vann in the nose while putting up a shot in the 3rd quarter, yet they did not call a flagrant 1 and did allow the shot to count. I am not even sure they called a foul at all on the play. I still think it is a foul when you put your shoulder into the body of the defender to clear path to the basket, but it was never called and Indiana lived off that move all evening.

Still, I felt we were our own worse enemy because we would jack-up a quick 3 instead of running our offense and getting a better shot.

And a shout out to the announcers - there were 2 teams on the court. I would have appreciated it that, if you didn't want to talk about the Sooners, at least describe the game going on on in front of you instead of fawning over Indiana all evening

Tomorrow, I will be happy and proud of what this team accomplished. Right now, I am in the 'shoulda, woulda, coulda' mode.

[TN Sooner]

I thought officiating was extremely 1-sided in the first half, but more balanced in the second half.

As for the announcers, I was so frustrated I looked up the color analyst - Andrea Lloyd, expecting to find she was connected to Indiana. She isn’t, but guess where she played college ball?

University of Texas. Nuff said.

[OUBeliever56A]

The Sooners played so very well almost the entire game. the last few minutes and all the forced fouls led to the final lead at the end.

I thought that Indiana was tough to play defense against as they are long and very smart as a team. They use their size on offense well. OU needed a couple more shots to fall in the last couple of minutes and couple less turnovers also.

The Sooners represented Oklahoma very well.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

After the game was played, I found myself a bit disappointed that the Sooners were not able to close the final 3 or 4 minutes of the game as well as they played the other 36 or 37 minutes. But still very proud and very happy about how they played and how they represented the themselves and Oklahoma. I also think that Coach Baranczyk did a very good job not getting a technical foul several times in the game. She has fierce desire for her team and led them so well. It would have been hard to not 'explode' a couple of times I thought. Oklahoma and AD Joe made a good choice when he chose Coach Jennie.

I won't do a rundown of the game here. I will just point out a few things and make general comments.

While the final score showed a 7 point difference, that was not the way the game was played. The score was tied after the 1Q at 19-19. The Sooners led by 1 at the half, 30-29 in a low scoring 2Q. Oklahoma led 48-46 after 3Qs. The Sooners undersized and all, lead for 26:12 minutes of the game. Indiana led for 7:26 minutes of the game. Neither team led by more than 8 points in the game with Indiana holding that 8 point lead while Oklahoma held a 7 point lead.

Oklahoma held their own inside against Indiana as both teams scored 38 points in the paint. I did not expect that. Good job Sooners. Oklahoma also out-rebounded the Hoosiers also by a 9 board margin 48 to 39. How does that happen except for just great effort by OU.

Oklahoma led in 2nd chance points by 6, Lead in fast break points by 13, led in bench points by 24. (I guess all those minutes for the 6 non-starters paid off for Coach Baranczyk and the team.) Oklahoma only committed 11 turnovers in the game. Indiana committed 4. While the 11 are not bad at all for the style that OU plays, the final two turnovers on passes inside were pretty costly at the time. Three possessions that did not lead to OU scoring without scoring at about 2 minutes to 1 minute left did hurt.

The story of the game was the fouls called and the fouls that were not called. Oklahoma scored 54 points from the field on 21 two's and 4 three's. Indiana scored 53 points from the field on 22 two's and 3 three's. BUT the Sooners were called for 12 more fouls in the game leading to 16 more free throws shot by Indiana. Yeah, it was Indiana's home court but still. The style of play by Indiana's Holmes inside is very different and she creates a lot of contact. The fouls seem to be a result of that. Then that carries across to other Indiana players. IMO in the final minutes, there were no fouls called on Indiana inside against OU and yet on the other end there were a couple phantom fouls called on OU that seemed to be anticipated and called before the play actually happened.

The Sooners finished the season at 23-10. They won the Big 12 Regular Season Title. After that 6-game stretch (1-5) at the end of the pre-conference season, could have ruined the season but the coaching staff and the players would not let that happen. There is a great deal of character on the floor and on the sidelines for the Sooners. I also think they played a bit over their heads at times, but I do not like saying that because is tends to diminish the talent that they have. Talent sometimes has to measure heart or fight in the player. In no way are the Sooners lacking in that. No way.

Thanks for the very good season and providing us fans with a very good cross-over season from the trio of Williams, Robertson and Llanusa to the 2023-24 version of the Sooners.

Boomer Sooner!

[soonerindallas]

Good overall game by the ladies. Going cold in the last 2 minutes killed us. Couldn't hit a shot and couldn't get a stop on defense.

I think they can be pleased with a solid year.