OU Basketball: No. 16 Oklahoma Overcomes Slow Start to Sweep Missouri

Sunday started with good news for Jennie Baranczyk’s Oklahoma Sooners, but the team found itself in a tough battle at Missouri.

The NCAA Selection Committee announced the No. 16-ranked Sooners would be the No. 15-overall team in their bracket if the season ended today, which would result in the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament coming to the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman.

To cling onto a 4-seed, Oklahoma needed to dispatch of the Tigers at Mizzou Arena in Columbia, MO.

Missouri outshot the Sooners 63 percent to 38 percent from the floor in the first half, resulting in the Tigers taking a four-point lead into halftime, but Oklahoma rebounded in the second half.

The Sooners went on a 7-0 run and an 8-0 run in the third quarter to help build an 11-point advantage headed into the fourth.

Oklahoma commanded the proceedings from there to win 82-66.

The Sooners moved to 19-6 overall on the year and 7-5 in SEC contests while Missouri fell to 13-14 and 2-10 in league play.

Here are Sooners on SI’s three takeaways from the win:

Old Formula Still Works

Lexy Keys and Skylar Vann are the Sooners who have had to make the biggest adjustments with the introduction of center Raegan Beers.

Keys, who was an excellent addition last season, moved to the bench.

Vann has had to be more aggressive to get to the same spots she scored from last year, too.

Sunday, both OU scorers looked like last year’s version of themselves.

Keys spread the floor and fired away from deep, knocking down three triples to finish with 13 points.

Vann, who tied her season-high in her last outing against Auburn, stayed locked in.

She knocked down 4-of-11 attempts from the floor to finish with 14 points, four rebounds and two assists.

The scoring outputs from Keys and Vann nicely complemented Payton Verhulst’s usual contributions, as she led the Sooners with 15 points on 6-of-12 shooting.

Glass Cleaners

As Oklahoma endured some shooting struggles early in the game, the Sooners’ efforts on the board kept Baranczyk’s group in the game.

OU doubled Missouri up in offensive rebounds 10-5 in the first half, which the Sooners turned into 11 second chance points compared to the Tigers’ one.

That gap only widened as the game pressed on.

Oklahoma won the total rebounding battle 36-23.

Baranczyk’s Sooners also did an excellent job of taking care of the basketball, as they won the turnover battle 18-15.

Beers Returns

After missing the last two games due to an illness, Beers returned to the lineup against Missouri.

She had an uncharacteristically tough shooting day from the floor, hitting 2-of-6 shot attempts, but she was her usual self on the glass.

Beers finished with six points, seven rebounds and two assists.

There was a nervous moment for Beers in the second half. She fell to the floor while battling for a rebound and appeared to land directly on her left elbow.

Beers went to the bench for a few minutes, but she was able to shake off the tough contact and return to the floor by the ned of the third quarter.

OU will need every hand as the Sooners look to surge toward the SEC Tournament.

Oklahoma will look to extend its winning streak to four games on Thursday when OU hosts Vanderbilt at 6 p.m. in a contest that will be broadcast on SEC Network+.