Oklahoma’s Taylor Robertson turned back to look at the rim just in time to see her corner 3-pointer hit nothing but net.
The play looked like it could’ve been an homage to the 3-point celebrations of her favorite NBA player, Steph Curry. But Robertson’s spin wasn’t a celebration, nor was it intentional.
Robertson was fouled and nearly went to the floor, but still managed to get the shot to fall. Her ensuing free throw capped off the four-point-play and gave the Sooners a commanding 20-point lead over the Horned Frogs with just under three minutes to play.
With the Sooners leading 99-78, a chant started echoing across the court with just under a minute to play: One more point. One more point. One more point.
Aubrey Joens got the ball cutting to the rim and got a layup to fall to put the Sooners over the century mark and secure a 101-78 win. It was the most points the Sooners have ever scored in regulation against a Big 12 opponent.
“I was so excited to have as many people as we had tonight,” OU head coach Jennie Baranczyk said. “You have no idea what to expect, you think maybe nobody would be able to be here and I thought the people that came, that made it a great environment.”
With an attendance of 2,736, it wasn’t the biggest crowd the Sooners have hosted this season. Still, with winter storms making transportation difficult, it was a bigger crowd than Baranczyk was expecting.
The Sooners honored Robertson after the game for breaking the NCAA record for career 3-pointers made last weekend against Iowa State. The night prior, Robertson was at the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, meeting her favorite NBA player with several of her teammates.
Robertson finished with 18 points on the night and was four of eight from behind the arc.
“It’s been crazy. It’s been unreal,” Robertson said. “It’s hard to put it into words because Steph is somebody that I’ve loved watching play and admired his game for so long. To be able to go to the game, talk with him and have him send that video, just be able to watch him play.”
The Sooners jumped out to a 29-16 lead after the first quarter behind 67% shooting from the field.
The Horned Frogs were able to battle back in the second quarter by shooting four of seven from behind the arc. Meanwhile, the Sooners cooled off on the offensive end, but went 10-11 from the free throw line to enter halftime with an eight-point lead.
Madi Williams set the tone for the Sooners in the third quarter with nine points on three of five shooting. Her 26 points led all scorers and came on efficient 9-12 shooting from the field.
The win snaps a two-game losing streak from last week against Texas and Iowa State, the top two teams in the Big 12.
“The first thing we have to do is we have to keep people off the free throw line and we’ve got to really be able to finish strong in the paint,” Baranczyk said about last week. “Those are things that we can control more than we think we can control and we can’t give other people as much control.
“Do I think we were perfect tonight? No. Were we better? In some areas. I’m not worried about that week and then tonight we fixed it. We’re going to get better.”
The Sooners will be back at home on Saturday to host West Virginia at 2 p.m.
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