The Oklahoma women's basketball team was at a major disadvantage against the UConn Huskies. But so is every team that doesn't have Paige Bueckers.
The 3-seed Sooners were dismantled by Bueckers and 2-seed UConn 82-59 in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday in a game OU actually led at halftime.
OU went to the locker room with hope and a 36-32 lead. The Sooners weren't even playing their best basketball with 13 turnovers and leading scorer Raegan Beers having only five points. Yet, OU was still controlling a dynasty.
After a scoreless first quarter, OU senior guard Payton Verhulst went off in the second for 13 points thanks to a trio of 3-pointers, including one from the mid-court March Madness logo. Verhulst led all scorers at that point, even Bueckers, who had 11 and is the projected No. 1 pick in the upcoming WNBA Draft.
PAYTON FROM THE LOGO OMG 😳@payton_verhulst // 📺 ESPN pic.twitter.com/kkQ70gCiuJ
— Oklahoma Basketball (@OU_WBBall) March 29, 2025
Bueckers then drained a 3 for the first points of the second half. Then she made another shot and eventually another and another and another and another. ... Bueckers scored 10 points in the third quarter. OU also scored 10 in the quarter as a team.
Between the third and fourth quarters, with the Huskies leading 59-46, UConn's legendary coach Geno Auriemma told ESPN's Holly Rowe, simply, he hoped Bueckers would shoot the ball more in the fourth quarter. And as Bueckers granted her coach's wish, she killed the Sooners' dreams.
Bueckers scored UConn's first 19 points of the fourth quarter until she was finally pulled with 3:06 left in the game. She finished with a career-high 40 points. For a program with 11 national championships, 23 Final Four appearances and just made its 18th Elite Eight in 19 years, Bueckers scored more points in an NCAA Tournament game than any UConn player ever had before.
Verhulst cooled in the second half and finished with 16 points. Sahara Williams and Beers, an All-American, also reached double digits with 10 points apiece.
The Sooners had the star power to be a top-10 team most of the season and get to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2013. But they didn't have Paige Bueckers. And in the second week of the NCAA Tournament, there is no equivalent.
USC's JuJu Watkins will likely win Naismith Women's College Player of the Year, which Bueckners is also a finalist for and won in 2021. But in the biggest tragedy of March Madness, Watkins tore her ACL during USC's second-round win.
LSU has Flau'jae Johnson and UCLA has Lauren Betts, but still, neither are Bueckners with five years of college basketball experience. And not even Caitlin Clark was always Bueckners against OU on Saturday evening.
Bueckners, though, has never won a national title between four NCAA Tournament appearances and making it at least this far every time and to the Final Four three times.
This year seems like destiny, though. There is no JuJu Watkins or Caitlin Clark. Even so, there's also no other Paige Bueckners, and that seems to be the only player deciding UConn's NCAA Tournament ending.