One way or another, Sooners do it again, this time over the nation's second-ranked team
One way or another, Sooners do it again, this time over the nation's second-ranked team
Still finding ways to win, Oklahoma joins Kansas State atop the conference
NORMAN — It has to be a mirage.
Only it isn’t, because just as so many things have continued happening, they all happened again Wednesday night at Lloyd Noble Center.
Again, a lid appeared to have been placed atop the Sooner basket.
Again, Oklahoma struggled to shoot even 40 percent from the floor, eventually shooting exactly that, making 20 of 50 field goal attempts.
Again, seemingly independent of how many points her team scores, Skylar Vann scored 20, give or take, this time netting 21.
Again, the vast majority of it wasn’t remotely pretty.
It was pretty at Texas, two games ago, when OU stopped the then-10th-ranked Longhorns, breaking the 90-point barrier for the first time in more than six weeks after netting 103 against Grambling State.
Again, so much seemed so hard for so long for a team that, if we’re to believe its point totals, has abandoned its free-flowing and high-scoring ways.
Again, somehow, OU prevailed.
Actually, scratch that. The Sooners did not just prevail.
What they did was knock off the nation’s second ranked team, Kansas State, 66-63.
“I don’t think we’re afraid of anything. I think the fear has left us.”
— OU women’s basketball coach Jennie Baranczyk
As Janice, Chandler’s Bing’s ex with the impossibly annoying voice “Friends” watchers were made to endure, might say:
Oh. My. God.
Because it can’t be real.
Only it’s entirely real
Forty days previous, also at Lloyd Noble Center, OU fell to lowly Southern, a middle-of-the-pack SWAC program now occupying the 204th spot in the NET ratings.
It was OU’s fifth loss in six games, concluding its non-conference slate.
But the Sooners (14-6, 8-1 Big 12) have played nine games since and have won eight, the lone setback coming to the same Wildcats (20-2, 9-1) they just beat.
“I don’t think we’re afraid of anything,” third-year Sooner coach Jennie Baranczyk said. “I think the fear has left us.”
Something’s happening, at least.
OU is winning despite being the 11th-best shooting team in the Big 12. It’s winning despite scoring fewer points than its opponents scored last season.
It’s winning despite the season-long unavailability of Liz Scott, a post, who would make traversing a very difficult league significantly easier.
Kansas State coach Jeff Mittie, whose team shot 36.1 percent (22 of 61), had some ideas on how the Sooners are getting so much done with their defense.
“Whoever she has on the floor, I feel like the five of them are pretty connected,” he said. “I didn’t see a glaring weakness when I looked at them … If you’ve got five out there connected and playing hard you can do a lot of really good things.”
Also, speaking postgame, Vann tried explaining how she’s able to do offensive damage because her teammates are so dangerous.
“They really do put me in good positions constantly,” she said.
Baranczyk, sort of, concurred, explaining that Vann doesn’t see that many double teams despite being OU’s leading scorer.
Yet, to watch her play, it’s clear she knows when it’s time to assert herself.
Of Vann’s 21 points, 10 came in the fourth quarter. In that fourth quarter, she netted three of OU’s last four field goals, putting the Sooners up 57-56, 61-59 and 63-59.
The two things OU’s been doing well despite shooting the ball so poorly, they did well again, too.
For the sixth time in seven games, the Sooners finished with 13 or fewer turnovers. And for the third straight game, they finished with 10 or less. It was 10 on Wednesday, just one in the fourth quarter.
Despite shooting 40 percent, they still assisted on 21 of 24 made baskets.
Since Big 12 play began, OU’s 19.1 assist average leads the conference.
Point guard Neveah Tot led with six helpers. Payton Verhulst added four and Lexy Keys, Vann and Aubrey Joens each added three.
For those who’ve really been paying attention, Joens’ horrendous shooting slump may have ended. She entered having missed her last nine 3-point attempts and had not knocked down at least two in a game since Dec. 22. Wednesday, after missing her first, she canned 3 of 6 and the Sooners needed them all.
Given the way OU’s been shooting and given the way it’s been scoring, it may appear Baranczyk, in an effort to thwart turnovers or simply exert some control, has slowed down her team.
She hasn’t.
The Sooners are getting up 67.2 shot attempts per conference game. A year ago, it was 67.9.
You know what that means?
“When the floodgates open,” Baranczyk said, “we’re going to have a lot of potential.”
Reminded by a sportswriter who’s been covering the program for almost 25 years, “If you shoot even 44 percent the rest of the season …”
“You’re right, exactly,” she said. “The offense is going to come.”
Imagine what her team will look like then.