Stormin in Norman
Fansided

Oklahoma basketball: Takeaways from OU’s NCAA opening-round win

By Chip Rouse

Oklahoma's Taylor Robertson (30) passes the ball during a women's basketball game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and IUPUI in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Okla., Saturday, March 19, 2022. Oklahoma won 78-72.Women S Ncaa Tournament
Oklahoma's Taylor Robertson (30) passes the ball during a women's basketball game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and IUPUI in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Okla., Saturday, March 19, 2022. Oklahoma won 78-72.Women S Ncaa Tournament /
facebooktwitterreddit

As they have all season long, the dynamic duo of Madi Williams and Taylor Robertson powered the Lady Sooners’ Oklahoma basketball team to an opening-round win in the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament.

No. 4-seeded Oklahoma defeated 13th-seeded IUPUI, which stands for Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis, 78-72 on Saturday and advances to a second-round matchup against No. 5 Notre Dame on Monday.

Robertson and Williams combined for 43 of the Sooners’ 78 points, scoring 22 and 21 points, respectively, and OU needed all of that, plus solid contributions from Skylar Vann and Neveah Tot, to get by the pesky Horizon League champions.

Vann, the Big 12′ Sixth Player of the Year, returned from injury, coming off the bench to score 13 points, grab five rebounds and collect two steals. Tot, the Sooners’ sophomore point guard. added 10 points along with a team-high eight rebounds.

The Lady Sooners improved to 25-8 on the year and are 21-2 this season when holding an opponent under 80 points. The win was OU’s 34th to go with 21 losses in the NCAA Women’s Tournament in 22 all-time appearances. It was also head coach Jennie Barancyzk’s first NCAA Tournament win.

Three big takeaways from the Lady Sooners’ 1st round NCAA Tournament win:

Sooners’ third quarter was the difference in the game

After taking a 41-37 lead into halftime, Oklahoma widened the margin to 14 points in the third quarter, holding IUPUI to just 12 third-quarter points. The Lady Sooners led by 10 points, 59-49 entering the final quarter, and it turned out they needed all of it as IUPUI cut the OU advantage to four points before the Sooners held off the late threat by converting at the free-throw line.

Taylor Robertson turned it up in 2nd half when it counted the most

Oklahoma’s career three-point leader contributed 17 of her game-high 22 points in the second half. She finished with 4 of 10 from three-point range and eight of nine at the free-throw line, sealing the OU win with critical free throws at the end.

Season-low number of turnovers major contributor in holding off IUPUI

The Sooners committed a season-low 10 turnovers. That along with holding IUPUI to just 36-percent shooting from the field at the other end of the floor were two major contributors to the Oklahoma win, its first in the NCAA Tournament since the 2017 season.

Home/OU Basketball