The Oklahoma basketball women survived their first test in the NCAA Women’s Tournament on Saturday and advanced to round two where No. 4-seeded UCLA awaits.
The nation’s second-highest scoring team hit its season scoring average, rolling to an 85-63 victory over the 12th-seeded Portland Pilots. The Sooners took their first lead, 7-5, two minutes into the game and never looked back after that with five players reaching double figures in the scoring column.
Oklahoma extended a five-point halftime lead to 16 to take a 63-47 advantage heading to the fourth quarter. The Sooners also owned the fourth quarter, outscoring Portland 22-16 to finish off the win and get Oklahoma past the NCAA opening round for the second straight year under head coach Jennie Baranczyk after missing the tournament for three straight seasons before that.
With under four minutes remaining in the contest, the Oklahoma lead had grown to 23 points at 80-57.
Junior Aubrey Joens and senior Taylor Robertson led the Sooners with 14 points. Madi Williams added 13 points and Ana Llanusa and Skylar Vann chipped in 11 apiece. Joens, who transferred from Iowa State, is the sister of Iowa State’s Ashley Joens, who led the Big 12 in scoring this season.
OU’s Liz Scott came close to achieving a double-double with nine points and a team-high 12 rebounds.
UCLA, a 67-45 winner over No. 13 Sacramento State, now sits in the way of No. 5-seeded Oklahoma’s way as the Sooners attempt to make it to the Sweet 16 for the first time since the 2012-13 season. And to do so, the Sooners will have to overcome one other major obstacle. They will have to beat the Lady Bruins on their home court at historic Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles.
OU is 3-3 all-time in games with UCLA.
The second-round matchup between No. 5 Oklahoma and No. 4 UCLA will be Monday at 9 p.m. CT. The game will be televised on ESPN2.
Telling takeaways from the Sooners’ first-round NCAA Tournament win
- Oklahoma has exceeded 80 points in 22 games this season and is 22-0 when doing so.
- The win over Portland is Oklahoma’s 26th of the season against six losses. It is the Sooners’ most wins since going 27-11 in 2009-10 and advancing to the Final Four.
- The Sooners dominated the boards against Portland, outrebounding the Pilots by a 16-rebound margin (47-31), including an impressive 20 offensive rebounds.
- OU’s 20 offensive rebounds led to 24 second-chance points.
- The Oklahoma bench outscored the Portland reserves 30 to 11.