Oklahoma Begins Four-Game Gauntlet Against 'Tough' Ole Miss Rebels

Jennie Baranczyk's No. 5 Sooners battle four straight top 20 teams beginning on Thursday night.

Oklahoma guard Zya Vann celebrates after hitting a shot against Oklahoma State. | NATE BILLINGS/FOR THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

NORMAN — Oklahoma’s gauntlet begins on Thursday. 

The No. 5 Sooners, riding a 13-game winning streak that’s the second-best run in program history, open a stretch of four consecutive games against teams currently ranked inside the top 20 of the AP Poll with Ole Miss. 

OU will host the No. 18 Rebels at the Lloyd Noble Center before heading to No. 6 Kentucky on Sunday, but Oklahoma cannot afford to peek ahead. 

“We keep hearing this, like okay, “Your next four games, the next four games,” Ou coach Jennie Baranczyk said. “… Yeah. But that fifth game is probably just as tough… We’re not paying attention to who those teams are yet because you’re in this phase right now that really the only focus is Ole Miss. So that’s all we can focus on. That’s all we want to focus on and I really do think we’re doing a pretty good job of that.”

The Rebels enter the contest 14-3 overall and 1-1 in SEC action, powered by a stifling defense. Ole Miss allows 53.5 points per game and slows things down, making every possesion that much more valuable. 

“They’re long. They’re athletic. They guard. They rebound really well,” Baranczyk said. “They’re very, very tough and you have to be ready to play them. You have to have a mindset that you’re ready to go. You have to be able to take care of the basketball because they can turn you over so fast. And you have to be able to rebound on both ends because they’re going to make the first shot very challenging and also they just crash the glass hard.”

The Sooners are also getting it done at a high level on the defensive end of the floor. 

Oklahoma allowed Texas A&M and Mississippi State to shoot a combined 22.8 percent in OU’s first two conference battles of the season, and Baranczyk feels like her team still has steps it can take. 

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How to Watch No. 5 Oklahoma vs. No. 18 Ole Miss

• When: Thursday, Jan. 7
• Time: 6 p.m.
• Where: Lloyd Noble Center
• Channel: SEC Network+

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“There’s still a hunger factor,” Baranczyk said. “We haven’t arrived anywhere; we have to keep going. That’s been one kind of pretty consistent message that we’ve all had, so that’s not even just from me. We all share that opinion. 

“… Our freshmen are still trying to show up and be better every day. They’re still trying to learn the physicality, and I think they’re taking each of these games as obviously opportunities but also as trying to learn just as much as they possibly learn. I think Sahara Williams continues to talk to everybody about that. “Let’s be live learners. Let’s keep going. Let’s keep going.”

OU combines the nation’s No. 2 scoring offense with its defense, resulting in the fifth-best scoring margin in the country. 

The efforts of freshman star Aaliyah Chavez, All-American center Raegan Beers, guards Payton Verhulst and Zya Vann all help, but Williams’ tone-setting energy keeps the Sooners running on the defensive end of the floor.

“She’s in her third year, and you can see her every day competitiveness and intensity just continuing to elevate and you can see it,” Baranczyk said. “It just covers everybody.”

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It also fuels the Sooners to continue to build leads after halftime. 

OU held Texas A&M to 0-for-10 shooting in the third quarter of the Sooners’ conference opener, and Mississippi State shot 20 percent from the field for the entire game — all while Oklahoma poured it on throughout the second half. 

“That’s the really beautiful part of having a young team,” Baranczyk said. “There’s so many challenges of having a young team… But this group of young players is very hungry to just get better and they love to play. So they don’t play against a scoreboard.”

Baranczyk is excited to see how her team continues that growth when the Sooners battle the Rebels (6 p.m., SEC Network+) on Thursday. 

“I think there’s just been a little bit of a shift in us,” she said. “And again, we’ve got to continue to get better. We have not arrived. 

“But you can tell that there’s something different about us, and you can tell that we’re heading in the right direction.”