OU women's basketball’s NCAA Tournament run started with a breeze but quickly felt the heat turn up in the second round.
Two days after shredding No. 13 seed Idaho (29-6) 89-59 in the first round at Lloyd Noble Center, No. 4 seed OU (26-7) had to survive a far tenser finish on Sunday, narrowly edging No. 5 seed Michigan State (23-9) 77-71 to reach the Sweet 16.
“It's March Madness, so … physicality is the name of the game,” senior center Raegan Beers said, according to ASAP transcripts. “We play in a conference that is extremely physical, and so that prepared us well for this … Michigan State is a physical team, a phenomenal team.”
The programs were relative strangers to one another — just the third all-time meeting between OU and Michigan State — but some of the faces in the paint were anything but unfamiliar. All-SEC center Raegan Beers and All-Big Ten senior forward Grace VanSlooten have been on opposite sides of the block for years, from high school showdowns to Pac-12 clashes before VanSlooten transferred to Michigan State, and now in the heart of March Madness.
A slugfest between the two bigs early on eventually tilted OU’s way. Beers took over alongside fellow All-SEC guard and national freshman of the year Aaliyah Chavez, giving the Sooners the edge in the second half after an opening 20 minutes that featured nine lead changes — the most first-half lead changes of any game in the 2026 NCAA Tournament so far. The duo combined for 36 points, 19 rebounds and six assists, with Beers posting her second double-double of the tournament with 18 points and 14 rebounds, while Chavez finished with 18 points and six assists.
“What you guys don't see is (Chavez)'s play-calling for other people,” head coach Jennie Baranczyk said. “She hit a really big shot, again, stepping up and hitting free throws. … For her to be able to have six assists, too, she's going to continue to get better and read and put her team in really good positions.”
The Spartans weren't without an answer for the Beers-Chavez tandem. Their backcourt of guards, junior Rashunda Jones and sophomore Kennedy Blair, poured everything into trying to deliver an end to the Sooners’ tournament run in front of a packed Lloyd Noble Center. The two guards kept the game competitive until the dying embers, combining for 34 points, and with VanSlooten in the mix, the trio accounted for 47. Outside of those three, however, the Spartans rarely found consistent production, as the rest of the nine-player rotation combined for 24 points.
The Sooners’ defense was the difference maker down the stretch, forcing turnovers and defending without fouling to keep the Spartans off the free-throw line. For a team not as widely recognized for its defense as much as its offense, OU still showed it won't break when the pressure turns up. This season, OU has now faced 12 of the top-25 scoring offenses in the country, and in the 13 games it has played against them, they are 6-7, allowing those opponents to score 78.1 points on average and a point differential of +1.8 points per game, notably worse than their season averages of 67.8 opponent points per game and a +18.9 point differential. However, the Sooners rallied on the defensive end to finish with 28 defensive boards, 12 steals and five blocks to seal the deal against the No. 11 scoring offense in Michigan State and keep dancing into the Sweet 16.
“To be in an atmosphere like that where we have a great crowd that's cheering for you, it makes it a lot easier to make it down the stretch and finish out tough games, which I think we did really well tonight,” Beers said.
With the weekend in Norman officially over and the Sooners heading out to Sacramento, Baranczyk now sits at 5-1 at Lloyd Noble Center in the NCAA Tournament and has her sights set on taking her team past the furthest point the program has reached during her tenure.
“You can tell in the five years that Jennie has been here she has created not just a winning culture but a culture that wants to work and that wants to have fun while winning,” Beers said. “When we play like that, when we have fun, you could see in the second half tonight, it's a lot more fun basketball to watch and a lot more fun to play.”
Next, the Sooners will face the winner of No. 1 seed South Carolina vs. No. 9 seed Southern California on Saturday in Sacramento. A time is still to be announced.
This story was edited by Joshua McDaniel.
