As if the dominating win by the Oklahoma basketball men at Kansas State on Tuesday wasn't enough to celebrate, the Lady Sooners sustained the celebration and upped the ante by knocking off the No. 2-ranked K-State women in Norman the day after.
Skylar Vann scored a game-high 21 points along with eight rebounds in leading the Sooners (14-6, 8-1) to a huge win over the Big 12 leaders and completing an Oklahoma basketball sweep of Kansas State on both the men and women's side in the same week.
Kansas State (20-2, 9-1) had not lost since suffering a loss to Iowa in late November in the Gulf Coast
Showcase and had posted 14 consecutive wins since then. It was also the Lady Wildcats first Big 12 loss after nine wins.
The win by Oklahoma, the first by the Lady Sooners over a team ranked in the top-two in the nation since defeating No. 2-ranked Texas in 2004 in the Big 12 Tournament championship game, moved OU within a half game of the K-State women in the Big 12 standings.
HOOPS: #Sooners upset No.2 Kansas State 66-63 on Wednesday night. @GeorgeStoia on a massive night at the LNC for Jennie Baranczyk's team: https://t.co/EcMqi06R6d
— SoonerScoop.com (@SoonerScoop) February 1, 2024
The Sooners broke up a close game in the fourth quarter with a go-ahead basket by Vann that gave OU a 57-56 lead with 6:22 remaining. Oklahoma never trailed after that with Vann scoring six of the Sooners' final 10 points.
The game was tied 10 times and there were 13 lead changes.
Asked by reporters after the game if the OU women were playing at the top of their game, head coach Jennie Barancyzk said it is better to wait till the end of the season to make that assessment.
Kansas State handidly defeated OU 74-57 in Manhattan earlier in the month. Since then, however, the Wildcats have been without star center Ayoka Lee, who is recovering from an injured ankle.
"Kansas State is obviously a very good team," Barancyzk said in the postgame press conference. "The players really gutted it out on both sides in the fourth quarter. But (our) team continues to show up in that time, and we've learned so much about ourselves."
Next in line for the Oklahoma women is a Bedlam rivalry matchup on Saturday against Oklahoma State on the road in Stillwater. Tip-off is 4 p.m. CT, and the game will be carried on ESPN+.