After three quarters of back-and-forth basketball with the Volunteers, the Sooners went to their bread-and-butter down low to pull away for another key victory.
No. 11 Oklahoma women’s basketball pulled away late in the game to seal a 100-93 win Sunday over the No. 21 Tennessee Volunteers inside the Lloyd Noble Center.
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The Sooners were in a dog fight for most of the game with the Volunteers, who had the lead for most of the second quarter, until the Sooners separated themselves with the use of center Raegan Beers.
Beers scored seven of her 18 points in the fourth quarter, along with two offensive rebounds and four total rebounds. She ended the game with 18 rebounds, with seven of those on offense.
It seemed the Sooners flipped a switch and decided to cycle the offense through Beers, switching it to operate inside-out with her. She delivered, helping OU pull away for a big win.
“We just kept focusing on getting into the paint,” Beers said. “In the first half, maybe it didn’t get into the paint specifically to me, but I felt we were doing a great job of getting in there and still going at them. You got to do that with a team like this because they’re really good. In the second half, maybe shifted a bit to get the ball to me inside a little bit more.”
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Alongside Beers, the Sooner starters had one of their best games of the conference slate so far.
Forward Sahara Williams led the way with 22 points off 9-16 shooting from the field and grabbed seven rebounds.
Guard Zya Vann scored 15 points and forward Payton Verhulst added 17 points, combining for three 3-pointers.
Freshman guard Aaliyah Chavez had another improved game, scoring 21 points with four assists and two steals.
However, Chavez made her points on 5-13 from the field and only attempted three 3-pointers — a stark contrast to her averages.
Chavez averages eight 3-point attempts per game and shoots 38.2% from the field in her freshman season.
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Though, in her past three games, she’s averaged 21 points per game with a 44% rate from the field and just 3.33 attempts from 3-point range per game.
Chavez is getting to the rim more-willingly and it’s allowing her to be more efficient and more effective for the Sooners. Opponents are guarding her more intensely and she’s countering it by driving into the paint more, which in-turn, gives her less 3’s and more 2-pointers.
In the three-game stretch prior to her revamped shot selection, she combined for 3-22 from 3-point range and 26.7% from the field against Florida, Texas and Vanderbilt.
Chavez’s decrease in attempted 3’s is not a change directed by OU coach Jennie Baranczyk. She said it’s from Chavez herself, who’s adjusting to what the defense is giving her.
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“It really hasn’t been an emphasis for us,” Baranczyk said. “I think she’s gotten pressured a lot and so I think she’s really trying to put the ball in people’s hands. I think her approach to shots is different. She’s trying to take what they’re giving her more and I think she’s just trying to read the game more. It’s not intentional.”
The Sooners (21-6 overall, 9-5 SEC) enter the final week of the season in a position to earn another opportunity to host the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament in March.
The NCAA released its Top 16 Committee Ranking and the Sooners are No. 16, giving the Sooners the final host-spot.
For the Sooners to continue on that four-seed line, they will need to finish the season with two wins, first with Arkansas at 6 p.m. Thursday inside the Lloyd Noble Center for Senior Night.
