Oklahoma basketball: Sooner women face Bedlam rematch with Big 12 title at stake
By Chip Rouse
While one Oklahoma basketball team is looking up at the rest of the Big 12 teams, another has the opportunity on Saturday to win a regular-season conference crown.
The OU women head to Stillwater for a return engagement with in-state rival Oklahoma State. An Oklahoma win and a Texas loss at Kansas State would give the regular-season Big 12 championship to the Sooners.
Both OU and Texas are tied at the top of the conference standings with identical 13-4 records. Oklahoma State is three-games back in a three-way tie for third place as we enter the final weekend of the regular season.
The Sooners won the first game in the Bedlam series this season, 97-93, in Norman, but had to come from behind in the fourth quarter to secure the victory. OU was ranked 15th in the country at the time of that game. The Sooners are No. 16 this week in the Associated Press Top 25.
Oklahoma owns a 66-47 record over OSU in the all-time series but is just 25-24 when the game is played in Stillwater. The two teams have split the last 10 games in the series.
Oklahoma and Oklahoma State are the top two scoring teams in the Big 12. The Sooners average 85 points a game, while the Cowgirls average 77. The Cowgirls lead the Big 12 in field-goal percentage as well as three-point percentage.
The Sooners have four players averaging at least 9.0 points a game, led by Madi Williams (16.1). Ana Llanusa averages 12.5, Taylor Robertson 11.4 and Skylar Vann 11.0 off the bench.
Naomie Alnatus and Claire Chastain are the two main scoring threats for Oklahoma State, averaging 14.0 and 10.3 points, respectively. Anna Gret-Asi dropped 26 points for the Cowgirls in the earlier game in Norman.
If the cards fall right over this weekend, it would be Oklahoma’s sixth Big 12 regular-season championship and first since 2009. Baylor has won the 12 previous Big 12 regular-season titles.
Next week, the OU women will be participating in the 2023 Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City, Missouri, as either the No. 1 or 2 seed. If the season ended today, the Sooners would be the two seed. Oklahoma has won the Big 12 Tournament championship four times, all between 2002 and 2007.