Aaliyah Chavez Powers No. 9 Oklahoma to Pivotal OT win Over NC State

NORMAN — The importance of some games isn't known for months.

But sometimes, it's easy to pick out when a game will be important to a team's season.

Wednesday night was one of those times for Oklahoma's ninth-ranked women's basketball team.

The Sooners came back from a double-digit second-half deficit to knock off North Carolina State 103-98 at Lloyd Noble Center to stretch their winning streak to seven.

"Experience is our best teacher," Oklahoma coach Jennie Baranczyk said. "I think we will come back to this game a lot, I think we will reference this point a lot, I think this is going to be something that our team — and I know our team discussed this, I think, at halftime without me is that they were going to go one way or the other so it'll be interesting to see where we go after this."

Oklahoma has scored at least 100 points in four consecutive game, the longest such streak in program history.

Aaliyah Chavez, the Sooners' freshman phenom, took another step forward, scoring a career-high 33 points and adding four assists and four rebounds. Chavez was 10 of 15 from inside the arc and 13 of 26 overall.

"She really did," Baranczyk said of the steadiness Chavez added. "Especially when we really needed it, I think, in the first half, when things weren't necessarily going our way, I think she created a lot and then obviously down the stretch to be able to have her put the ball where it felt like it needed to go and she hit some big shots sometimes trying to get it obviously to Raegan (Beers)."

Chavez expressed some concern to Baranczyk during the game as it sometimes seemed like the game was on the verge of getting out of control for OU.

"I told her I didn't care," Baranczyk said. "And she responded really well. I think what's really neat is in that kind of game, I'm learning how to coach her and when you're in those moments and she's coming over and we're trying to strategize and I think as the game went on, I think I got harder on her and harder on her and harder on her, which is probably opposite than what I was thinking I would do with her but she responds, and she stays focused, and she keeps her team going and her focus is exactly where it needs to be."

Baranczyk said the physicality of the game in particular would prepare her team for conference play.

"That's as close to the SEC as we've seen so far," Baranczyk said. "So I think that was really good for us. But I feel like the way that they handled and were steady even through all that was pretty impressive."

Since going 9 of 34 from the floor in her first two games, Chavez has improved plenty offensively. Chavez credited teammate Sahara Williams with helping steady her.

"During that game, I felt like me and Sahara had a moment where I was calming her down sometimes and she was calming me down. She's a huge part of our success."

Chavez's 33 points were the third-most all-time for an OU freshman, behind on Courtney Paris and Aaryn Ellenberg.

Beers and Williams added 21 points each and Zya Vann scored 12 in the win.

Zamareya Jones led NC State with 26 points while Zoe Brooks added 25.

Chavez said the Sooners took a step forward defensively, especially late.

"We were talking after our timeouts, during our timeouts," Chavez said. "We just stayed connected and we knew exactly ... we wanted to win this."

The Sooners (8-1) return to action at 1 p.m. Sunday at Lloyd Noble Center against Maryland Eastern Shore.

Here are three takeaways from OU’s win:

Sooners Fight Through Second Half

Oklahoma trailed by 10 early in the third quarter and it seemed like the Sooners were in danger of the game getting away from them.

But OU locked things down defensively, helping them climb back in the game.

The Sooners cut the deficit to three by late in the quarter, but the Wolfpack extended their lead back to eight with a three-point play from Zamareya Jones to open the fourth.

But Chavez came right down and hit a 3-pointer on the next possession to help stop NC State's momentum and the Sooners went back to work chipping away at the deficit.

They cut it to one, 88-87 on Vann's fast break jumper with 2:13 remaining, then took their first lead since the second quarter on Williams' free throws with 1:42 remaining.

"Putting ourselves into those game situations where you have to get stops, and those last two-point-whatever seconds felt like 15 minutes where it was like three or four different possessions where you have to get a stop when the score's tied," Baranczyk said. "Those kind of things you can practice as much as you want to practice but it's not the same as the real thing so that kind of stuff I think is really good for us."

The Sooners took care of the ball, finishing with just nine turnovers and outscoring the Wolfpack 17-10 off turnovers.

Raegan Beers’ Double-Double Streak Continues

Beers came into the game having recorded five consecutive double-doubles and leading the country with six so far this season.

But playing against 6-foot-6 sophomore Tilda Trygger for much of the game, Beers found it difficult to work.

Beers needed overtime to get the job done but finally reached the mark with a block and rebound of a Jones shot under the basket about two minutes into the extra frame.

Beers finished with 21 points and 12 rebounds.

She nearly kept the streak alive in regulation, recording three fourth-quarter rebounds to go along with six points.

Trygger eventually fouled out in overtime, with Beers scoring five of her points in the final 1:44 without Trygger on the floor.

Beers also had a key play in the closing seconds of the fourth quarter, ripping the ball away from NC State's Khamil Pierre after an inbounds play with 1.8 seconds left, preventing the Wolfpack from a potential game-winning shot.

Beers is just the second Sooner to record six consecutive double-doubles, joining Paris, who set an NCAA record with 112 consecutive double-doubles.

Baranczyk said Beers was a big difference in the closing minutes of regulation and in overtime.

"We have Raegan Beers and we've got to use her and she's got to demand it," Baranczyk said. "I think there's a balance of that because when she does that, guess what's going to open up for everybody? The three. There's a lot of things that are going to open up for a lot of different people if we do that."

Sooners Get More Selective From Deep

Oklahoma got off to an awful start from beyond the 3-point line, missing its first six from distance over the game’s first six minutes.

The Sooners were just 1-for-8 from beyond the arc in the first quarter, then matched that number in the second quarter to go 2-for-16 in the first half.

But Oklahoma’s offensive approach looked much different coming out of halftime.

The Sooners attempted just one 3-pointer in the third quarter, and then continued to be selective in the fourth, with Chavez making a pair of 3s but the team attempting just three more from distance the rest of the way.

"We talked about this game being a battle of twos anyway on both ends," Baranczyk said. "... We needed Raegan to be really assertive — that's what we needed — and we needed to rebound the ball a lot better. We needed to get the hustle plays. They kicked our tail on the boards and that's something that if we can't figure that out, it's going to be a long season. If we can figure it out, we can be pretty darn good."

Oklahoma was outrebounded 57-48.

Read More Oklahoma Women's Basketball

Sooners Fight Through Second Half

Raegan Beers’ Double-Double Streak Continues

Sooners Get More Selective From Deep