The Sooners are headed to the Big 12 Championship.

The third-seeded OU women’s basketball team pulled off a narrow 74-69 victory over the Oklahoma State Cowgirls in the semifinals of the Big 12 tournament. With the win, the Sooners move on to Sunday’s Big 12 Championship game.

The Sooners dominated the Cowgirls in the previous two matchups this season, but Saturday’s contest proved not to be so easy.

The Cowgirls went on an 12-0 run early in the game to go ahead 16-4, with senior guard Andrea Riley going for 11 points in just six minutes.

Senior forward Amanda Thompson was the only Sooner keeping OU alive early with 12 points of 5-6 shooting by the second timeout. Thompson had 12 of the Sooners’ first 14 points, but remained down 24-14.

Once the midway point hit, the Sooners returned the favor with an 8-0 run to get back into the game.

With 7:17 remaining in the half, OU trailed OSU 30-25.

OSU was not going to let OU hang around that close for long. Within just two minutes, the Cowgirls were back up by 11.

The Sooners fought their way back again, down two with under a minute to go, but two points by Riley sent the Sooners into the locker room down four at the half, 40-36.

Once she settled down, junior guard Danielle Robinson also added ten points in the half for OU.

What separated Oklahoma State early was the Cowgirls’ shooting percentage. OSU shot 50 percent compared to OU at 41.9 percent. They also outrebounded OU 19-17.

Sophomore guard Jasmine Hartman opened the half up for OU with two points, looking to slow down OSU.

OU tied the game at 41 with 18:40 left in the game, and a minute later the Sooners took their first lead 44-43.

After this point, the Sooners and Cowgirls would trade baskets with neither team able to find any separation.

The Cowgirls went up by four with eight minutes remaining, but senior guard Nyeshia Stevenson responded with a three on the other end.

The Sooners went back up by two as the clock ticked past 4:00, but an opportunity to for either team to pull away in the final minutes.

Opportunity came knocking and the Sooners took advantage.

OU opened up the largest lead of the second half at six points with under a minute to go, and the Cowgirls could not respond.

Robinson finished the game with 19 points and Thompson followed closely behind by 17 points and 18 rebounds.

Stevenson, who came up big in the second half, finished the afternoon with 15 points.

The Sooners can’t afford to celebrate the Bedlam win for long because the championship game tips off against Texas A&M at 12:30 p.m.