Oklahoma Sooner Women BB at Virginia for Sunday Game @ 1PM CST!

[OUBeliever56A]

The Virginia Cavaliers (3-0) will host the Oklahoma Sooners (4-0) in a 1 PM CST tip-off from Charlottesville, VA. For the Sooners it will be the second road game against a Power 5 conference team in ten days. OU is ranked #21 and #25 in the two major polls. Virginia is not ranked despite their 3-0 record. This will be the first meeting ever between OU and Virginia.

Virginia has three wins at home over Maryland Eastern Shore 76-52, Campbell 74-49 and William & Mary 80-51.

Here is the Sooner staff writers article about the game at Virginia.

https://soonersports.com/news/2023/11/1 ... -road-test

In the Sooners four wins this season, they are averaging 91.75 pts/game and allowing 64.5 pts/game for a 27.25 point-differential per game. they have defeated Wichita State, Ole Miss on the road, Oral Roberts and Alabama State. Virginia has a 26.0 point-differential per game.

Three Sooners have led the Sooners in scoring in the four games and 4.25 players per game have scored in double-digits in each game. It is a team concept for OU. Aubrey Joens off the bench led the scoring in game 1 with 19, Skylar Vann led in game 2 with 24 and game 4 with 16. Payton Verhulst led in game 3 with 32. Not surprisingly, those three lead the Sooners in points per game. Verhulst at 15.8, Vann at 13.5 and Joens at 13.0. Sahara Williams (FR) is leading in rebounds with 6.5 per game followed by Vann with 6.0 and Verhulst and Joens with 5.5 each.

Lexi Keys is leading the Sooners in steals with 2.5 per game and scoring 10.3 points per game. Williams is adding 11.0 points per game for five Sooners averaging in double-digits. Point guard Neveah Tot is leading in assist with 4.75 per game and scoring 3.5 per game.

Virginia is led by 5th year SR, Taylor (6'2") as she scores 16.7 per game and 6.3 rebounds per game. A JR, Brown (5'10") is scoring 14.3 points and 9.0 rebounds. the other three starters are Johnson (FR-5'7") with 13.7 points and 5.3 boards per game, Clarkson (Grad-6'2") with 9.0 points and 3.5 boards and Smith (SR-5'8") with 5.0 points and 6.3 boards. Two players off the bench to watch are Brunelle (Grad-6'2") with 12.0 points and 4.0 boards and McGhee (FR-6'2") with 9.0 points and 3.3 boards per game.

I think the game will boil down to two points.

1. Can Oklahoma run and play at their pace of play that they like? (With minimal turnovers < 20.)
2. Can OU handle the inside against four 6'2" players that score 46.7 points a game 17.1 rebounds?

I think that the three Sooner young post players may be a key in the game tomorrow. As a trio, they have scored 14.8 points a game and have pulled down 11.1 rebounds a game in 33 minutes of play. Sometimes there are two of the trio in the game at once. Those periods of time may be key. The success of handling the Virginia post bigs may require the trio to play well on Sunday.

Two other bench players, Audrey Joens and Reyna Scott may be keys also. Together they average 20.8 points and pull down 8.8 boards. If they play well, they could be a positive difference for OU.

The game will air on ACC Network with Brenda VanLengen and Brooke Weisbrod on the call, while Chad McKee calls the action on the Sooner Radio Network.
Here is a link to the Sooner Radio Network where you can find the Women's BB stations that will be covering the game.

https://soonersports.com/sports/2019/8/9/210185760

Good luck to the Sooner Women tomorrow!

Boomer Sooner!

[MsProudSooner]

Sooners defeat UVA 82 - 67.

UVA closed to within 6 in the 4th quarter but OU rallied and won going away. Sahara Williams had all 11 of her points in a 5 minute span of the 4th quarter.

Box Score:

https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadca ... MS4wLjAuMA..

[TN Sooner]

Weird game. Sooners were GREAT most of first half and then were awful for 3rd quarter. Pulled together late and closed out strong.

Freshman growing up? Sahara was not good early - seemed to be forcing things, turnovers, bad shot selection, etc. she earned a lot of time on the bench for her efforts. Jennie brought her back in the 4th, entering a 6-8 point game. At the time, I thought, “this is a mistake”. Sahara proceeds to prove me an idiot, making shots, drawing fouls, making FT’s and disrupting on defense. Her future is bright.

Great road win. Biggest concern - we gave up a ton of offensive rebounds - late, UVA had 18 off boards - probably got 20+.

[EMan]

OU had a comfortable 44-27 lead at the half before Va made their push. Quite frankly, much of that was due to the refs allowing it to become a WWE match on the defensive end. Va. got very aggressive with the large deficit and made the game extremely physical in the 3rd and 4th qtrs and the refs swallowed their whistles for a good portion of the second half. But the Sooners maintained their composure and kept plugging away with what had originally built that big lead to start with, and made a quick run after the under 5 minute timeout to push the advantage back to 14. This type of game was good experience for them as conference play will undoubtedly be very physical at times. There were some really rough spots here and there, but overall it was a solid win. That's two good road wins already this year, at Mississippi and now at Virginia.

[OUBeliever56A]

Weird game. Sooners were GREAT most of first half and then were awful for 3rd quarter. Pulled together late and closed out strong.

Freshman growing up? Sahara was not good early - seemed to be forcing things, turnovers, bad shot selection, etc. she earned a lot of time on the bench for her efforts. Jennie brought her back in the 4th, entering a 6-8 point game. At the time, I thought, “this is a mistake”. Sahara proceeds to prove me an idiot, making shots, drawing fouls, making FT’s and disrupting on defense. Her future is bright.

Great road win. Biggest concern - we gave up a ton of offensive rebounds - late, UVA had 18 off boards - probably got 20+.

I think just maybe, that Sahara Williams grew up out there on the floor today in the 4th quarter. Her play was a boost to the team when they needed it along with a couple Three's that went in.

The offensive rebound total for Virginia was 18. Yeah, some of them hurt. I think the depth inside for the Sooners which is getting it done it done so far, may be sorely tested in the Big 12 and against good big teams the rest of the season.

Here is the Sooner staff writers article about the Sooner good win today over Virginia.

https://soonersports.com/news/2023/11/1 ... ia-on-road

Boomer Sooner!

[MsProudSooner]

OU had a comfortable 44-27 lead at the half before Va made their push. Quite frankly, much of that was due to the refs allowing it to become a WWE match on the defensive end. Va. got very aggressive with the large deficit and made the game extremely physical in the 3rd and 4th qtrs and the refs swallowed their whistles for a good portion of the second half. But the Sooners maintained their composure and kept plugging away with what had originally built that big lead to start with, and made a quick run after the under 5 minute timeout to push the advantage back to 14. This type of game was good experience for them as conference play will undoubtedly be very physical at times. There were some really rough spots here and there, but overall it was a solid win. That's two good road wins already this year, at Mississippi and now at Virginia.

Amen on the 2nd half officiating. If I hadn't known better, I would have thought it was a completely different team of officials.

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Sooner Women's Basketball Team arrived in Charlottesville, VA with a 4-0 record and already one road victory over a ranked SEC team. After their game today against Virginia, they left Virginia with their second win on the road over an ACC team, the Virginia Cavaliers (Wahoo's) 82 to 67. The Sooners are now 5-0 on the season and have showed that when they are playing well that they are hard to slow down. But there are times when they can struggle to score and to control the boards against a bigger team. Let me be clear, the win was a big win by the Sooners early in the season as they try to replace 3 players that had started most of their careers. The Sooners are young and learning how to play quickly individually and as a team.

In the first quarter, the Sooners outscored Virginia 24-18 in a fast paced quarter. The score was 7-7 three minutes into the game. But in the next 3:45-ish seconds the Sooners outscored the Cavaliers 18-7 to lead 25 to 14 for an 11-point lead. The surge by Oklahoma was led by Aubrey Joens and Reyna Scott. In the final 3:15 minutes of the quarter outscored the Sooners 11 to 3 before Skylar Vann scored on an old-fashioned 3-point play to makes the score 24-18 in favor of OU after one quarter.

In the second quarter, the Sooners pushed the lead up to 34-23 to lead again by 11 points. Payton Verhulst had 2 Three's in the run by OU thru 3:15 minutes of the quarter. By the time the clock ticked down to just under 3:00 minutes left in the quarter, the Sooners led 42-23 for a 19-point lead again as two 3's helped OU. The quarter ended with OU leading Virginia 44 -27.

OU played well in the first half except for the final 3 minutes of the 1st quarter. Joens led OU in the 1st half with 12 points. Verhulst added 9, Vann and Keys added 8 points each. Vann really got beat up early in the half inside by the big Virginia post people. The play was physical at times. I thought Beatrice Culliton gave OU a good 10 minutes of play in the half as she pulled down 5 rebounds and scored 3 points. Sahara Williams also pulled down 6 rebounds to help out inside. Only Williams had foul concerns as she had 2 fouls at the half.

In the 3rd quarter, the Sooners still lead by 18 points 3 minutes into the quarter at 54-36. But the Virginia front court stepped up their game the rest of the quarter and closed the OU lead to 9 points at 57-48 as OU was limited to 3 points during the last 7 minutes of the quarter. The big difference was that Virginia made their way to the free throw line with 9 of 11 shooting from the charity stripe. I think the tough play inside was a benefit to Virginia with the way the game was called.

The Sooner lead was only 5 points after a little more than two minutes into the 4Q at 60-55. At about the 3 minute mark, Lexi Keys hit a Three to make the score 72-61, back to an 11 point lead again. Seven consecutive points by Williams moved the Sooner lead to 16 points at 79-63 with one and half minutes to play. OU scored in two of the last three possessions to win 82-67.

Oklahoma won three of the four quarters in the game by 6, 11 and 6 points. Only the poor 3rd quarter where OU was outscored 21 to 13 was a poor quarter. OU did out-rebound the taller, more physical Cavaliers 49 to 43. Williams had 10 boards, Culliton and Vann had 8 and Verhulst had 6. There were 7 Team rebounds also. I think that staying with Virginia on the boards was a key in the game.

Offensively, Vann kept working and led the Sooners with 20 points. Verhulst added 15. Joens scored 12 (all in the first half) with Keys and Williams scoring 11 points each. All of Williams' points were in the 4th quarter! Oklahoma shot 43.3% from beyond the 3-point line on 13 of 30 shots as they made at least 3 'Threes' in each quarter. That is consistent long-range shooting. BTW, Virginia was 1 of 23 from beyond the arc in the game. From inside the arc, the Sooners shot 53.1% of their shots. OU shot 75% from the free throw line also. Oklahoma shot very well today.

Oklahoma had 18 fast break points in the game, all in the first half. Virginia was successful pounding the offensive boards and slowing down the Sooners in the 2nd half. Virginia had 12 offensive rebounds in the second half to score 13 second chance points.

Oklahoma had 12 turnovers in both halves for 24 total. Sometimes when the turnovers are bunched into three or four possessions, they can cause issues. If the Sooners can limit the turnovers to something less than 18, with their style of play, they can probably win most games. Virginia scored 21 points off of the Sooners turnovers today.

It was a good win today for Oklahoma, especially on the road. But, there are some things to still work on for the Sooners which is not a bad thing, it is very early in the season. Any team will most likely have some things to work on this early.

The Sooners will return to the floor next Thursday and Saturday at the Fort Myers Tipoff in Florida. The Sooners will play Princeton in the first game at 2 PM CST on Thursday. On Saturday the Sooners will play Tennessee at 12:30 PM CST.

Princeton is 3-1 and only lost to UCLA by 3 points 77-74. They look to want to play the game in the high 60's range as far as pace is concerned. Tennessee is also 3-1 as they lost to Florida State 92-91. Tennessee scores well as they have scored at least 84 points in one game and more than 90 in the other three games. Neither team plays before Thursday.

Congratulations to the Sooners on the 5th win out of five games this season.

Boomer Sooner!

[MsProudSooner]

The tv crew missed a play in that I would liked to have seen. We were bringing the ball down the court after either a UVA score or missed shot. As the camera showed us the right-hand half of the court, Skylar was doubled over on the floor in pain at around the free-throw line with a UVA player standing behind her. It appeared that she'd had the breath knocked out of her. The officials ignored it. She managed to get a rebound and score. She was fouled and hit the free throw.

[TN Sooner]

The tv crew was not on-site, so they had no clue if the cameras didn’t show it. Many consequences of the Covid era, but one is ESPN has decided they don’t have to send announcers to the game site. It is obvious to me when they aren’t calling a game onsite. Not that bad for basketball, because cameras catch most of it, but it’s terrible on softball, because there is much happening outside the eye of 2-4 cameras.

On that sequence, Skylar definitely got roughed up - symptoms appeared to show someone that had take a shot to the midsection and she also had a fat lip.