It came down to the wire in a narrow 59-54 win by the OU women’s basketball team over Baylor in the second round of the Big 12 tournament.
Junior guard Danielle Robinson kicked off the game for OU with the Sooners’ first four points.
OU had an unexpected Lady Bear to contest with in this game with the return of Melissa Jones. Jones had been on the sidelines with an injury since January.
Baylor took its first lead to go up 14-12 with 9:43 left in the contest.
After this point, both teams traded baskets. Strong defense by both teams was key to the low scoring first half.
Baylor also saw the return of freshman phenom Brittany Griner who returned against the Sooners after a two-game suspension. OU managed to hold the center to four points, all scored late in the half.
The two teams went into the half knotted at 26-26.
Coming out of the half, it was three minutes before the Sooners found the bottom of the net on a shot by senior forward Amanda Thompson.
While OU had a slight edge over the Lady Bears in the first half, Baylor had the edge for most of the second half.
The Sooners struggled with foul trouble down low against Griner. Senior center Abi Olajuwon and freshman Joanna McFarland both picked up four fouls.
OU kept Baylor within five, but could not tie it until senior guard Nyeshia Stevenson starting knocking down shots to tie it at 47 with five minutes left.
Stevenson was the force behind the Sooner comeback in the second half. She finished the game with 12 points.
The game looked like it would go either way with a 55-42 Sooner lead with just two minutes remaining.
OU pulled down a big rebound on Baylor miss that took the game under a minute to go.
Finally, with 17 seconds left, Baylor had the chance to tie with a three. Jones sent the shot up, but the miss sealed the fate for the Lady Bears.
Robinson was consistent all night for OU on offense, putting up 26 points.
Thompson was the other Sooner in double figures, posting 15 points and pulling down eight rebounds.
With the win, OU moves on to the next round of the tournament for Bedlam round three.
OU will face Andrea Riley and the Cowgirls Saturday at 2:30 p.m.
The Oklahoma Daily is pleased to provide you the opportunity to share your thoughts about this article. We encourage lively debate on the issues of the day, but we ask you refrain from using profanity or other offensive speech, engaging in personal attacks or name-calling, posting advertising, or straying from the topic at hand. To comment, you must be a registered user of OUDaily.com. Thanks for taking the time to offer your thoughts.
You must be logged in to leave a comment. Log in | Register