OU Basketball: Oklahoma Throttles Iowa, Reach First Sweet 16 Since 2013

NORMAN — For a fleeting moment, Oklahoma appeared stuck in a recurring nightmare.

In the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the fourth straight year, the No. 3-seeded Sooners again stumbled to a slow start.

Iowa raced out to an early lead, and it appeared that someone forgot to take the lid off OU’s bucket.

But Sahara Williams and Zya Vann weren’t going to settle for another disappointment.

Vann stripped Hawkeye forward Hannah Stuelke, went coast-to-coast and started Oklahoma on a 16-1 run to close the first quarter — all without star center Raegan Beers on the floor.

The Sooners never looked back.

Williams finished with 13 points on 6-of-10 shooting, powering the Sooners to a 96-62 win on Monday at the Lloyd Noble Center to fire OU into the Sweet Sixteen.

“I don't think anybody understands, (Sahara) worked her butt off this summer getting to this point,” OU senior Skylar Vann said after the win. “Like, she's been in the gym since this summer, getting her shot, getting her 3 going, getting that mid-range, getting that three-level scorer. That's what you saw today.

“Nobody ever sees that. Nobody sees the work we put in. To see Sahara really shine out there today, it meant so much. She held the standard from the jump. We just followed suit.”

Williams, a Waterloo, IA, product who was recruited by the 6-seeded Hawkeyes out of high school, played with an unmatched tenacity.

Iowa’s defense couldn’t stay in front of her. She got every look at the rim she wanted, grabbed nine rebounds, ripped one steal and dished out four assists.

It’s the first trip to the NCAA Tournament's second weekend for Oklahoma (27-7) since 2013.

The Hawkeyes finish 23-11 on the year.

“I think we have tried to play to prove a lot,” OU coach Jennie Baranczyk said after the monumental win. “That we we're better than we were, or we try to prove that we're good enough, or we belong in the SEC, or that we were Big 12 champs… Today's, I think, one of those validation points when you play for joy and play together look at what happens.

“… It's a pretty sweet feeling… I'm just excited that this team gets to keep playing.”

Coming into the tournament, Baranczyk felt her team’s depth was going to be the difference.

Beers and Payton Verhulst, Oklahoma’s leading scorers, totaled just four points in the first half, yet the Sooners took an 11-point lead into the break.

Then the shots started to fall from deep.

After shooting a combined 2-of-17 from 3 in the first half, reserve center Liz Scott and Verhulst hit back-to-back triples to put OU up 17 with 7:48 left in the first quarter.

The rest of the game was purely academic.

“We're hard to guard,” Skylar Vann said. “When you have — if you look at the stats, I mean, we had multiple scorers today… We were giving each other the ball. We were really being aggressive on offense and defense, getting rebounds, getting second opportunities to score.

“When we do those things, when we're so connected that nothing else matters, we're a great team, and we're hard to beat.”

In the third quarter, Williams was only slowed by a leg cramp, and Beers went down briefly after an elbow to the face, but Oklahoma carried a 68-43 lead into the fourth.

OU won the turnover battle 20-15, the rebound battle 64-33, and got to the free throw line 20 more times than the Hawkeyes.

Verhulst rallied to finish with 16 points, seven rebounds and three assists.

Senior Skylar Vann added in 17 points, nine rebounds and four assists in her final performance at the LNC.

Beers ended with 11 points and 13 rebounds.

The Sooners will likely face 2-seeded UConn in Spokane, WA, provided the Huskies dispatch of 10-seeded South Dakota State on Monday night.

Oklahoma advanced to its 11th Sweet Sixteen all-time, and this is Baranczyk’s first trip to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament as either a head coach or a player.

And while she said it’s a long time coming, she’s just focused on continuing to make memories with her team.

“I love this team. I love coaching this team,” Baranczyk said. “I love the lessons that we continue to learn, and they've been hard lessons and it's not always sunshine and rainbows, but that's what makes it so beautiful and amazing, and they test you every day, and we all mess up. We all get up and keep going.

“I’m so glad that we get another day together.”