The Oklahoma women's basketball team got its sweetest victory in over a decade.
The 3-seed Sooners annihilated the 6-seed Iowa Hawkeyes 96-62 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Monday in the last basketball game of the season at Lloyd Noble Center.
The win punched OU's first ticket to the Sweet 16 since 2013 after falling in the second round the last three years under head coach Jennie Baranczyk.
A year after making the national championship game, Iowa didn't stand a chance for long Monday afternoon. The Hawkeyes mounted an early 10-4 lead with 6:51 left in the first quarter, but from there, it was all OU after a 10-0 run.
The Sooners had a 38-27 lead at the half and built the lead with their two top players on the bench with foul trouble. After combining for 49 points in OU's first-round win against 14-seed Florida Gulf Coast on Saturday, Raegan Beers and Skylar Vann both got two early fouls on Monday.
Sophomore guard Sahara Williams, from Iowa, took over with Beers and Vann on the bench, tallying 13 points, seven rebounds, three assists, two blocks and a steal in the first half. She finished with those 13 points after going scoreless in the second half.
Williams was just one of six OU players to score double-digits in the win. Through the early foul trouble, Vann still led the Sooners with 17 points, and added six rebounds, four assists and a pair of steals. Beers, in only 18 minutes between foul trouble and an injury, still recorded a double-double with 11 points and 13 rebounds.
Senior guard Payton Verhulst, in her last game at Lloyd Noble Center, scored 16. Liz Scott came off the bench and contributed 11 points. Freshman Zya Vann, the younger sister of Skylar, scored 10.
The Sooners now await the winner of 2-seed UConn and 10-seed South Dakota State, who play at 7 p.m. CT Saturday on ESPN.
The Huskies blew out 15-seed Arkansas State 103-34 in the first round, while SDSU upset 7-seed Oklahoma State 74-68 to ruin any chances of Bedlam later on in the bracket.