Oklahoma basketball: Takeaways from OU’s disheartening NCAA loss to UCLA

If the Oklahoma basketball women could have reversed their third and second-quarter performance against UCLA on Monday night, we might have been looking at a much different outcome of their second-round matchup in the NCAA Women’s Tournament.

The Sooners fell behind big early, fought back from a deep hole and actually took the lead in the third quarter, but eventually ran out of gas in the final 10 minutes and fell 82-73 to No. 4 UCLA.

Trailing by as many as 18 points less than 20 minutes into the game and playing on UCLA’s home court at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles, it appeared that Oklahoma had dug itself so deep a whole that its chances of advancing to the sweet 16 had slipped to nil and none.

The No. 5-seeded Sooners faced a 13-point, 41-28, deficit heading to the locker room at halftime, and there were strong signals from midway through the first quarter and into the second that this just wasn’t going to be Oklahoma’s night.

The Bruins had shot 45 percent in the first period and upped that to 50 percent in the second. That contrasted with 36-percent shooting by the Sooners in the opening quarter followed by a putrid 27 percent in the second 10-minute stretch, connecting on just 4 of 15 field goal tries.

Oklahoma came out of the locker room a different team to start the second half. The Sooners whittled away at the UCLA lead and took advantage of an ill-timed scoring hiccup by the Bruins. Six and a half minutes into the third period, OU had outscored UCLA 22-8 and taken a 50-49 lead, its first since leading 5-4 a little over 90 seconds into the game.

The Sooners stretched the lead to 54-50 before UCLA closed out the third quarter with a field goal and free throw to draw within one as the quarter ended.

Unfortunately, the Sooners weren’t able to sustain the same energy and effectiveness that they had expended in the third quarter in getting back in the game. The Bruins slowly pulled away and Oklahoma appeared to run out of gas in the waning minutes, and UCLA’s Charisma Osbourne took over the game for the Bruins down the stretch. Osbourne scored nearly half of UCLA’s points with a game-high 36, including her team’s final nine points, all from the free throw line.

Over a stretch of four and a half minutes in the fourth quarter, Oklahoma managed just one field goal and six made free throws. The Bruins outscored the Sooners 29-19 in the final quarter to win by nine.

Losing in the second round of this year’s tournament may not be as bad as some would think, other than the opportunity for OU to play at least one more game. UCLA’s round of 16 opponent is No. 1 overall seed and overwhelming favorite to win it all South Carolina, which hasn’t lost a game in two seasons.

Takeaways from a season-ending Oklahoma loss

• This was the last game in an Oklahoma uniform for redshirt seniors Madi Williams, Taylor Robertson and Ana Llanusa.
• The Sooners scored 23 points off of 18 UCLA turnovers.
• Oklahoma was 18 of 24 from the free-throw line, but four of those missed free throws came during clutch time in the fourth quarter.
• Williams led the Sooners with 24 points. She scored OU’s final 10 points in the game. Williams finishes her sensational Sooner career with 2,365 points, second-best all-time in OU women’s basketball.
• Robertson was 0 for 3 in three-point tries on Monday, ending her streak of 73 consecutive games with at least one three-pointer. She ends her Sooner career as the NCAA leader in made three-pointers (547). Her 2,346 points rank third in OU history behind Courtney Paris and Williams.
• Oklahoma finishes the season with a 26-7 overall record and a share of the Big 12 regular-season championship. The 26 wins is the most by an OU women’s team since the 2009-10 team went 27-11.