OU Basketball: Three Takeaways as Oklahoma Pulls Away from Arkansas

Oklahoma ran its winning streak to five Sunday with a 94-54 runaway over Arkansas in Fayetteville.

Raegan Beers scored a career-high 30 points for the second straight game to power the Sooners, now 21-6 overall and 9-5 in the SEC. Sahara Williams (15 points), Skylar Vann (12) and Payton Verhulst (12) were the other OU starters in double figures.

Izzy Higginbottom led Arkansas (9-20 and 2-12) with 22 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists.

The Sooners continue their march toward the NCAA Tournament, and a potential regional in Norman, Thursday at Florida. Tipoff from Gainesville is at 6 p.m.

Here are three takeaways from Sunday’s blowout at Bud Walton Arena:

30 + 30

Beers made 12 of her 14 shots Sunday and knocked in all three of her 3-point tries. This after she went 11-of-13 from the field in last Thursday’s 101-81 victory over Vanderbilt.

The Razorbacks were helpless to contain Beers on the block, and late defending the OU center when she set up to shoot top-of-the-key 3s in transition.

“Raegan was incredible in the second half,” OU coach Jennie Baranczyk said on the Sooner Radio Network following Sunday’s win.

She was pretty good right out of the gate, actually.

Arkansas took its only lead on Phoenix Stotjin’s game-opening 3-pointer. Beers answered with a 3 off Vann’s pass, a left-handed finish at the basket after evading defender Vera Ojenuwa, and another 3 in transition off Reyna Scott’s assist.

That gave the Sooners an 8-3 lead, a margin they built to 23-15 by the end of the first quarter and 40-32 at halftime.

Another third quarter KO

The Sooners put Arkansas away with a 32-16 third quarter in which they made 13 of their 21 shots. The Razorbacks went 5-of-20 in the decisive quarter while being outscored 18-2 in the paint.

Beers scored 13 in the quarter while Williams was OU’s best all-around player, creating turnovers on defense and making a variety of shots.

OU has now outscored its last three opponents 91-43 in the third quarter. The Sooners used Sunday’s explosion to turn a fairly even game into a blowout, much as their 34-17 third quarter against Vanderbilt turned a 43-37 halftime advantage into a 101-81 runaway.

OU trailed Missouri 44-40 at the half Feb. 16 in Columbia, before a 25-10 third quarter sparked an 82-66 victory.

“I thought we did a much better job of rebounding, playing defense and converting,” Baranczyk said of Sunday’s second-half turnaround in Fayetteville.

March toward March

Play-play-play man Josh Haley called OU a potential “nightmare” matchup for an upcoming NCAA Tournament opponent during Sunday’s SEC Network telecast. And that was during the first half with the Sooners still in middle gear.

An hour later, following her team’s 54-22 second half, Baranczyk told Sooner Network announcer Brian Brinkley: “This time of year, as we continue to get better, we know our best basketball is ahead of us. You can see that we’re inching toward that.”

“Inching” is putting it mildly on the basis of OU’s winning streak, and the Sooners’ second-half statements over the course of that streak.

“Fun basketball to play,” Beers said Sunday on the Sooner Network, “and fun girls to play with.”