OU Basketball: South Carolina Bounces Oklahoma from SEC Tournament

South Carolina flexed its defending national champion muscle and Oklahoma suffered a 93-75 SEC Tournament semifinal loss as a result Saturday in Greenville, SC.

The Sooners played the Gamecocks closer than they did in a 101-60 regular-season humbling loss on Jan. 19, but still never led Saturday. It was 45-28 at the half after South Carolina's 14-2 half-ending run, and 70-54 at the end of the third quarter after OU had pulled within 61-51.

The 29-3 Gamecocks had five double-digit scorers and advanced into Sunday's 2 p.m. SEC championship against either LSU or Texas.

OU fell to 25-7 and saw its nine-game winning streak end.

The Sooners got a combined 32 points from Sahara Williams and Payton Verhulst, but bellwether inside player Raegan Beers went from the first minute of action until the 6-minute mark of the fourth quarter between baskets.

Jennie Baranczyk now takes her team home to await its NCAA Tournament seeding and assignment. That will be determined March 16.

Here are three takeaways from Saturday's SEC semifinal:

The Supporting Cast was South Carolina’s

The Sooners’ offensive formula over their nine-game streak was Beers + Verhulst + critical contributions from a deep supporting cast = winning basketball.

That got flipped completely Saturday.

South Carolina hassled Beers with a big, mega-athletic frontcourt. Beers, a double-double sure thing the past month, shot 2-of-10 and scored six points while grabbing eight rebounds.

Verhulst (15 points) got hot from 3-point range in the third quarter, but OU could not cash in nearly enough from outside. The Sooners were 2-of-17 from 3 before catching some fire in that third quarter.

Meanwhile, OU did not get nearly enough from its bench. Williams scored 17 points and Reyna Scott added 10 among Sooner starters, but that hardly made up for South Carolina’s 56-20 advantage in bench scoring.

Blink and They’re Gone

Skylar Vann turned her offensive rebound into her 15-foot basket to pull OU within 31-26 with less than four minutes left in the first half. South Carolina answered by turning Beers’ turnover into points, turning Landry Allen’s turnover into points, turning Vann’s turnover into points and turning Vann’s 3-point miss into points.

It was 45-28 by halftime.

Liz Scott knocked in a top-of-the-key 3-pointer to get OU within 61-51 near the 2-minute mark of the third quarter. South Carolina answered with five quick points by forward Joyce Edwards, two Chloe Kitts free throws and Tessa Johnson’s driving basket.

Nevaeh Tot beat the third-quarter buzzer for a 3-pointer, but all that did was pull OU within 70-54 heading into the final period. That margin more or less held from there.

Three words stood out from Baranczyk’s on-court assessment to ESPN’s Holly Rowe at the end of Saturday’s first quarter: “They’re so good.”

Waiting Games

Conferences across the nation staged their women’s tournaments a week ahead of the men’s, leaving programs like OU with sudden idle time until the women’s NCAA Tournament bracket reveal March 16 at 7 p.m. (two hours after the men’s reveal).

Now done with the SEC, the Sooners can use the break to contemplate their forthcoming NCAA seed, their assigned regional and the three teams who might join them in first- and second-round games in Norman (OU has surely done enough to host those early-round matchups).

Charlie Creme has the Sooners as the No. 3 seed in his latest mock ESPN mock field, opening at home against 14-seed Montana State, with No. 6 Florida State playing No. 11 Washington/Harvard in that bracket as well.

OU will practice to stay sharp next week, but will also be smart coming off such a demanding SEC regular season and postseason.

“When you’re trying to play that many games and max out, the next thing is you’ve got a whole week off before the selection,” Baranczyk said ahead of the SEC tourney. “So there’s plenty of time to rest.”