Sooners defeated Mississippi St. by 31 points

NORMAN – The Oklahoma women’s basketball team took the lead in the first quarter and dominated the Mississippi State in Norman on Saturday, knocking out the Bulldog 94-63 as part of the Big 12 / SEC Challenge.

The 31-point win is the largest non-conference winning margin of the Power Five opponent since a 39-point win over Oregon 24. November 2012. With a victory over Mississippi State, the Sooners (7-1) continued. their now four-game winning streak.

“There was so much teamwork today, especially in defense, and I’m really proud of the way we played,” head coach. Jennie Baranczyk said. “I thought we did such a great job playing team defense. Mississippi State has great players and they do an incredible job to get to the finish line, but our team’s defense was really great tonight and it showed.”

The OU started the hot start again early and opened the game in the 8-2 series before the Bulldogs (6-2) settled in and took their only lead in the game, an 11-10 advantage with 6:48 left in the match. in the first quarter. Sooners then closed the opening frame with a run of 17-11 and took a six-point lead into the second.

In the second quarter, the Sooners knocked it down by not giving a Mississippi State bucket for three minutes as part of a more significant 18-3 series to control the game. Oklahoma started the halftime with a dominant 22-point lead.

With a big lead, the OU locked up in the defense in the third and fourth quarters, keeping MSU at 34.4 percent off the field in the second half and just 27.8 percent behind the arc in the last 20 minutes. As a result, the Sooners increased their lead to 33 at the end of the fourth quarter, securing a 31-point win after the final whistle.

Oklahoma Senior Trio Ana Llanusa, Taylor Robertson and Madi Williams further showed why they all rank in the top 100 nationally in scores. After scoring 25 points at SMU on Tuesday, Llanusa scored 21 points in a row in 20-point matches for the first time since he scored 25 and 30 points against UAB and Missouri State in November 2019. Robertson led Sooners in 2019. scored 22 points, throwing six three-pointers and set a new school record in consecutive games with 5 plus points, which is now five. On saturday Madi Williams was a force on Baranczyk and secured his third double in four games with 13 points and 11 rebounds.

Kelbie Washington scored a double-digit score for the first time as Sooner, hitting a free-throw pair late in the game to reach 10 points. The rinses won returned to the floor and scored nine points by grabbing seven boards from the bench. Liz Scott added nine own points from the field 4/6.

As a team, the OU fired 50.8% (33/65) for the second game in a row, scoring 10 three-point points over Robertson’s six-chip lead. The Sooners won the substitution by forcing 23 and surrendering 18. Baranczy’s teams also had a small advantage in the glass, overtaking Mississippi State in a 40-39 victory. The Bulldogs shot 36.8% of the floor in the game, the third lowest percentage for an OU opponent this season.

Saturday’s win was the first five-match home-based game to end Sooners ’non-conference schedule and calendar year 2021. Oklahoma is now taking a look at Eastern Michigan, which it is hosting on Tuesday at 5pm at the Lloyd’s Noble Center.