OU Women Basketball (2-0) host ORU on Sunday in 2PM Tip-off

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Sooners Women's Basketball Team led by Coach Jennie Baranczyk returns to Lloyd Noble Center today for a Sunday 2 PM tip-off against Oral Roberts University.

The Sooners have defeated a gritty Wichita State team by 24 with a strong second half of play and then defeated a Top 15-ranked Ole Miss squad on the road by 10 with another strong second half of play. In the WSU game the Sooner offense was led by Joens, Verhulst and Keys. In the Ole Miss game the leaders were Vann, Williams and Keys.

On offense four of the five Sooner starters are averaging over 10 points a game. Vann leads with a 14 point average while Keys is averaging 12.5, Williams 12 and Verhulst 11. The remaining starter Tot is averaging 3 points as she leads the offense. Two bench players, Joens and Reyna Scott are adding 14 and 8 points per game to provide good bench play. Through two games, no sooner sis averaging over 25 minutes a game to show the Sooners depth and rotation pattern. Eight Sooners average double-digit minutes. Three more average 9.5 minutes a game.

Those three players averaging 9.5 minutes are the young post players for the Sooners trying to replace Liz Scott's minutes.The trio of Culliton, Johnson and Allen are averaging 10.5 points and 9 rebounds in 29.5 minutes. If those three BIGs can pick up the minutes opposite of Vann and Williams at the 4 and 5 spot, and play well, the Sooners could be in good shape inside this season. So far they seem to be doing that as a trio.

The Sooners are averaging 50% from the field and 28.9% from beyond the arc and 74.5% from the charity stripe. That is a good shooting start for the Sooners. The Sooners have outrebounded their opponents by 22 so far in the young season. The only stat that really needs to improve is the turnovers. The Sooners have lost the ball 45 times in their first two games. Oklahoma committed 26 turnovers against Ole Miss and stil won by 10 points on the road. They perhaps picked up win that was marginal due to those turnovers.

The ORU Golden Eagles are 1-1 this season as they lost to TCU by 20 and won easily over Friends University by 53. They look to be led by three players so far this season. 5'10" Guard, Jones is averaging 19.5 points and 5.5 rebounds to led ORU. 5'8" Guard Oglesby is averaging 12.0 and 8.5 with 6'1" Guard Udoumoh tossing in 11.0 and 6.0.

Here is the pregame article by Sooner staff writers about today's ORU game.

https://soonersports.com/news/2023/11/1 ... o-host-oru

Good luck to the Sooner Woman today as they try to pick up Win #3.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

The headline for the Sooner staff writers article read, "Verhulst's Historic Day Leads OU to Rout of ORU". It was 90% true. The part about the game that Verhulst played was 100% true. The part about the rout, was not so true. The Sooners only led by 5 when the 1Q ended, by 12 by halftime and again by 12 by the end of the 3Q. Only in the 4Q did the Sooners 'rout' ORU as they outscored the Golden Eagles by 17 as the Sooners double ORU 34-17 in the final quarter. OU played down to the level of ORU for 3/4th of the game. That should be a cause for concern to Coach Baranczyk and her staff.

Here is the Sooner staff writers article about Verhulst day and the win by Oklahoma 103 -74 yesterday.

https://soonersports.com/news/2023/11/1 ... out-of-oru

I am glad I did not post an article about the game last night after I returned home. 16 hours later, this morning, I think i have more perspective about the game than just frustration about the game.

Focusing on Verhulst, here are some superlative comments from the article above.

Verhulst is the first player in at least the last 24 seasons of Division I women's basketball to score 32 points on 80% shooting with six assists and three blocks against a Division I opponent.
The De Soto, Kan., product's 32 points are the second-most of the Baranczyk era, and the guard is just the second Sooner since 2001 to post 32 points, six rebounds and six assists, joining Danielle Robinson, who did it in 2010.
She was a perfect 5-of-5 from deep, joining Taylor Robertson as the only Sooners to ever make a handful of 3-pointers without a miss in program history.
Verhulst had a day as she was 12 for 15 from the field with those 5 perfect 3's. She also added 3 of 4 free throws, 6 rebounds and 6 assists as noted above. She played a team leading 33 minutes as well.

The Sooners had 30 assists and 51 rebounds on the afternoon as well. But they also had 21 turnovers and 22 fouls (with Williams and Vann getting in foul trouble early). there were good things about the win, but there were some bad things as well. ORU scored 40 points in the paint. Most of those points were on drives that penetrated the paint and were scored on 'layups' or on foul shots after being fouled. Too many times, the Sooner defended was not squared up facing the ORU player and ready to play defense. Instead they were lazily besides the ORU player as they followed the player down their path to the bucket and either fouled or allowed a shot. There was hardly ever any help provided from any other Sooners to help stop the drive. It was lazy defense most of the day by Oklahoma.

In addition to Verhulst big day, Audrey Joens continues to play her hustling style as she added 13 points and 6 rebounds off the bench. Lexi Keys and Sklyar Vann had 10, Tot had 8, Williams had 6. Off the bench, the center-trio of Culliton-Johnson-Allen added 15 points, 13 rebounds and 5 assists in 32 minutes of play. that was critical as Vann and Williams were limited to 30 minutes of play due to fouls. Verhulst, against a smaller ORU team was able to move to the 4th spot to make up the remaining minutes. Tucker add 7 points including one three, Scott adde 2 points, with 5 rebounds and 5 assists.

After shooting only 41.7% from the field and 26.7% from 3-territory. The Sooners shot very well in the 2nd half to produce a game where the Sooners shot 52% from the field and 41.4% from 3-point land. But the Sooners only shot 61.9% from the free throw line. That is not a good mark.

Oklahoma is 3-0 based upon playing solid, good basketball in 7 quarters of the 12 they have played. The final half against Wichita State was good, the game against Ole Miss was good with a better 2nd half and the final quarter against ORU was good. OU has an opportunity to raise their game and not play 'down' to the level of their opponents on Tuesday morning at 10:30 AM in the annual Field Trip Day at Lloyd Noble Center.

The Sooners will play Alabama State who is 1-3. After winning their opener against Shorter (Ga.) 76-41, Bama State has been defeated by 60 by Alabama, 44 by Memphis and 49 by SMU while only scoring 45.67 points in those three losses. It no doubt should be a win for the Sooners. But for me, unless the Sooners win by 50+ and hold Alabama State under 50 points, the game will be considered disappointing. Oklahoma basketball needs to start playing against a standard instead of trying to pick up a win. The game on Tuesday morning should be guaranteed by the middle of the second quarter with OU up by 30-40 points as they come out an dominate against Alabama State.