OU Basketball: Three Takeaways as No. 13 Oklahoma's Late Rally Falls Short Against No. 7 LSU

Oklahoma looked down and out.

The No. 13-ranked Sooners fell behind No. 7 LSU by 24 points with 4:13 left in the third quarter at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, LA on Thursday.

But Sahara Williams’ bucket and foul pulled the Sooners back within one with 1:35 remaining.

Oklahoma and LSU traded triples, keeping the game at one point into the final minute.

However, the late charge wasn’t enough.

LSU pulled down back-to-back offensive boards, and the Tigers found Mikaylah Williams for her seventh 3-ball of the night to put the hosts up four.

Jennie Baranczyk’s team was unable to answer on the other end, and LSU got a layup on the other end to go up six with 12 seconds left to avoid blowing the massive lead and hold on for a 107-100 victory.

Payton Verhulst’s 26 points wasn’t enough for the Sooners in the losing effort as Oklahoma fell to 16-5 on the year and 4-4 in conference play, while LSU held on to move to 22-1 and 7-1 in SEC contests.

Defensive Struggles

Two games ago, Oklahoma struggled to slow down South Carolina.

On Thursday night, the Sooners again were unable to come up with enough stops to stay in the game.

Williams, a sophomore for LSU, torched the Sooners. She dropped 37 points on 12-of-20 shooting, including knocking down 7-of-12 from deep which set a career-high.

She was supported by 25 points from Flau’Jae Johnson and another 21 points from Aneesah Morrow.

The damage came in waves, too.

LSU started the second quarter on a 10-2 run that erased the three-point advantage the Sooners built after 10 minutes, and then the Tigers had a fantastic start to the second half to build a 24-point lead with 4:13 left in the third quarter.

In the closing moments of the third quarter, Baranczyk called for a full-court press and OU found some success by putting together a 15-3 run, but Williams drilled another triple to pull the Tigers out of the nosedive.

Late Rally Falls Short

With center Raegan Beers’ minutes limited due to foul trouble, it felt like Verhulst was having to do it alone for stretches of the second and third quarter.

Skylar Vann’s offensive woes continued, but when Baranczyk called for the extra defensive pressure at the end of the third, it seemed to get the Sooners’ offense back into rhythm.

Beers finished with 20 points on 8-of-8 shooting, but Lexy Keys hitting a trio of 3-pointers late in the third and the emergence of Williams and Zya Vann late helped OU pull within striking distance.

A pair of Reyna Scott free throws cut the deficit down to six points with 4:01 left in the game, ushering in a tight finish in Baton Rogue.

Oklahoma was never able to get the lead back, but the Sooners showed plenty of poise to erase the poor start to the second half to threaten LSU at the end.

Sparks Fly

Both Oklahoma and LSU set the tone early with physicality, and the referees teetered on losing control of the contest in the first half.

The marathon of reviews began with 4:10 left in the first quarter.

LSU’s Sa’Myah Smith was called for a foul under the bucket on OU’s Beatrice Culliton, and after the whistle Smith shoved Culliton to the ground.

Liz Scott, Culliton’s teammate, stepped in and pushed Smith in response, and following a lengthy review both players were ejected.

The officials confirmed to the ESPN2 broadcast crew that the fracas rose to the level of a fight, meaning Scott will miss the Sooners’ bout with No. 12 Kentucky on Sunday.

Things got chippy between Oklahoma-LSU 😳

Both Liz Scott and Sa'Myah Smith were ejected and will miss their next game. pic.twitter.com/T2sRyArwiM
— espnW (@espnW) January 31, 2025

With 6:12 left in the second quarter, Baranczyk was hit with a technical foul for following a ref down the sideline in front of OU’s bench to the baseline to argue a call, and then there was another review two minutes later.

On the Tigers’ end of the floor, LSU big Aalyah Del Rosario elbowed Beers in the throat as Del Rosario was trying to establish position.

That foul was upgraded to an intentional foul, and the whistle got much tighter for the rest of the half in an attempt to settle the game back down.

It was Kim Mulkey’s turn to get T’d up with 5:52 left after Johnson was called for a foul on Verhulst, which reignited what had been a relatively tame second half when juxtaposed against the opening 20 minutes.

Oklahoma has just a few days to regroup as the Sooners are set to host Kentucky at 3 p.m. on Sunday at the Lloyd Noble Center.