The Oklahoma women's basketball team was handed a dangerous first-round assignment in the NCAA Tournament, but aced it.
The 3-seed Sooners beat 14-seed Florida Gulf Coast 81-58 on Saturday at Lloyd Noble Center to advance to play 6-seed Iowa in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Monday.
The Eagles could have been a nightmare for the Sooners in the first round, and nearly were. FGCU entered the NCAA Tournament at 30-3 and on a 23-game winning streak, having not lost since Dec.16. The Eagles were by far the best 14-seed in the field and a tricky task for a team getting to host the first two rounds.
FGCU also had extra motivation when seeing crimson. It was the Sooners again last year who barely beat the Eagles 73-70 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, that time in Bloomington, Indiana.
Up until late, it looked like it would be that kind of game again that the Sooners hopefully survived.
The Eagles got within eight points early in the fourth quarter, but then OU asserted itself as the top seed and eventually went on a 17-0 run to erase any sign that FGCU ever had a chance of coming back.
After the game, senior center Raegan Beers, who is OU's leading scorer, credited senior forward Skylar Vann for the late surge. Vann finished with 24 points and nine rebounds after scoring OU's first five points of the fourth quarter and dishing out a pair of assists to Beers during the run.
Beers was also spectacular in the win with a game-high 25 points and a preposterous 18 rebounds for a double-double. She was the biggest part in OU's NCAA Tournament record 72 team rebounds.
After fending off the best 14-seed in the NCAA Tournament, the Sooners now get what many believe is the top 6-seed in the bracket in the Iowa Hawkeyes. Although without Caitlin Clark and head coach Lisa Bluder now, the Hawkeyes made the national championship game last year.
Just before OU took the court, Iowa handled 11-seed Murray State 92-57 in the first game of the day at Lloyd Noble Center. The Hawkeyes improved to 23-10 on the season.
The Sooners and Hawkeyes will play on Monday for the final game of the season at Lloyd Noble Center. The winner will advance to the Sweet 16.