Oklahoma basketball: While OU men are struggling, the women are holding their own

While we’ve been lamenting the free fall of men’s Oklahoma basketball, going from good to bad in almost a heartbeat, the Sooner women have been holding their own.

It’s been a while since we’ve checked in on Sherri Coale’s OU basketball team. While the Sooner men have fallen to 6-9 and a tie for seventh place in the conference standings, the Lady Sooners have held steady and currently hold down outright third place with a record of 10-6 in the league and two regular-season games remaining.

The OU women celebrated Senior Night on Wednesday with an 80-71 win over Iowa State, with the Sooner seniors scoring 58 of Oklahoma’s total.

The Sooners will play their final home game of the season on Saturday against Texas Tech, a team they have beaten 14 consecutive times. The women will precede the men’s game against Kansas State on Saturday at Lloyd Noble Center.

While the OU men have surprisingly fallen out of the sky with six consecutive loss, the Lady Sooners have gone in the opposite direction, putting together a record of 5-1 in their last six games.

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A month ago, the Oklahoma women stood at 10-11 on the season and 5-5 in conference action. After coming out winners in five of their last six games, the Sooners have climbed to third place in the league standings with a 10-6 record behind Baylor and Texas.

After a four-point loss to TCU on Jan. 27, the Sooner seniors, led by Maddie Manning and Vionise Pierre-Louis, put their heads together and agreed that winning every other game was not a way they wanted to go out in their final season. They knew the team was better than that, and their motivational plea quickly filtered down to the rest of the team.

Whatever was said, it clearly has been acted out over the last three weeks, and now the Sooners have the kind of momentum you want rounding the final corner and heading into postseason play.

Coale’s squad also has benefited from a scheduling advantage, having to play just once the past couple of weeks instead of the two games a week that is the norm during the conference season.

Take it any way you can get it, right.

Oklahoma also has ratcheted up its defensive pressure – something the Sooner men should take note of – during its recent three-game win streak. Over that stretch, the Lady Sooners are holding their opponents to a 35.1 shooting percentage from the floor and just 62 points a game.

The Sooner women close out the regular season with their home finale Saturday against Texas Tech. That will be followed by a Red River rivalry road contest at  pair of road games next week at No. 6 Texas.