The Oklahoma women's basketball team is onto the second round of the NCAA Tournament, and the Sooners did so thanks to second chances.
The 3-seed Sooners handled the 14-seed Florida Gulf Coast Eagles 81-58 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday at Lloyd Noble Center. Next, the Sooners will play the 6-seed Iowa Hawkeyes on Monday with a trip to the Sweet 16 on the line.
In Saturday's win, OU fought off a late comeback attempt from an FGCU team that was on a 23-game winning streak. But the Eagles eventually ran out of gas while having to essentially beat the Sooners twice almost every possession.
As a team, the Sooners pulled in 72 total rebounds compared to FGCU's 35. OU had an advantage, though, as its shortest starter, Reyna Scott at 5-foot-10, was still almost as tall as FGCU's tallest starter, Lauryn Taylor at 5-foot-11.
Those rebounds resulted in 27 second-chance points for the Sooners.
The Sooners' 72 rebounds were the most ever by a team in an NCAA Tournament game. The previous record was 69, set by UConn against St. Francis in 2018.
The OU program record for most rebounds in a game still stands at 75, which the Sooners accomplished against Cameron way back in 1982.
This season, only Troy averaged more rebounds a game than the Sooners, who averaged 47.3.
The Sooners' rebounding efforts have been led by junior center Raegan Beers, who averages 8.9 this season. On Saturday, Beers had a ridiculous 18 rebounds with a game-high 25 points for a double-double. The 18 rebounds was the second-most ever by a Sooner in an NCAA Tournament trailing only Courtney Paris' 20 in 2007.
Sophomore forward Sahara Williams also had double-digit rebounds with 10. Skylar Vann also pulled in nine.
"A lot of missed shots," OU coach Jennie Baranczyk joked afterward. "It was a game of pace -- that's part of it, where both teams are really getting up and down. The 23 offensive rebounds means we missed quite a few, but at least we were there to cover them up."