Raegan Beers, Aaliyah Chavez Lift Oklahoma to Blowout Win Over North Alabama

NORMAN — Aaliyah Chavez elevated for a baseline jumper and swished it through, and the crowd screamed.

A few moments later, Chavez reached out for a steal and Sahara Williams finished with a layup.

More screams.

Every free throw, every bucket, every call that went Oklahoma’s way drew a similar shriek.

Every miss, every turnover drew a collective groan.

There was a different energy at Lloyd Noble Center for Friday’s matchup with North Alabama. The program’s annual Field Trip Day.

Thousands of school children spent their morning watching the sixth-ranked Sooners beat North Alabama 89-61 on Friday morning.

"This is my favorite game," Sooners coach Jennie Baranczyk said. "... Especially as a mom, you know the impact of what it actually means. There's so many students here this is the first college campus they've been on and you want to be able to show them these incredible things and learn lessons through sport."

The loudest moment of the day, though, came late in the third quarter when Zya Vann hit the first of a pair of free throws to give the Sooners their 67th point.

"Got to give the people what they want sometimes," Baranczyk said.

Raegan Beers led the celebration on the bench, encouraging the fans and even the coaches to get involved in the celebration.

"Jennie was like, 'We got to get a free throw'," Beers said. "So you see Payton (Verhulst) try to get a foul and Zya obviiously gets the foul. We all stand up and I'm looking at Shannon (Gage, an OU assistant, saying, 'Shannon, you got to get up, 6-7, 6-7. We were just trying to get them going. ... We knew the kids were going to get excited about that."

OU jumped ahead early with an 11-0 run — taking the lead for good on that Chavez jumper — and never looked back, After the first quarter, the Lions were never closer than 10 and were never closer than 24 in the second half.

Beers led the way with 20 points while Chavez added 17.

The Sooners had just nine turnovers for the second time in three games. OU didn't have a game with fewer than 10 turnovers last season.

The Sooners (3-1) travel to face Western Carolina at 2:30 p.m. Sunday.

"This is a mental-toughness week," Baranczyk said. "This is a week where we've had a lot of travel, a lot of games in a short period of time, especially with a young team when you're going from one scout to the next scout to the next scout, that's not always easy."

Here are three more takeaways from the victory:

Aaliyah Chavez Hits Buzzer Beater

Before Friday's early walkthrough in the practice gym, Chavez was dribbling near midcourt when Beers approached her.

"Shoot it, you won't," Beers told Chavez.

She did, and the shot went through the bucket.

A couple hours later, Chavez did it again. dribbling down the court as time expired before halftime to send the Sooners into the break leading 57-33.

Chavez came into the locker room at halftime with some thanks for Beers.

"So actually I get a verbal assist because I told you to shoot it," Beers said. "So I'll take the credit for that. ... That was awesome. The energy sparked even higher."

It's become routine early in this young season for OU to hit buzzer beaters.

Payton Verhulst hit one to end the third quarter Monday against UCLA after Vann hit one to end the first quarter.

Chavez hit a pull-up three pointer as the halftime buzzer sounded in the season opener against Belmont as well.

"You work on a lot of different situations but at the end of the day, it's about making plays a lot more than it is play call," Baranczyk said. "So I think that they've done a really nice job and a lot of times that group is really gaining a lot of chemistry and confidence so they're really understanding what they need to do with each other."

Raegan Beers Breaks Through

Beers hadn't exactly struggled this season, coming in averaging 14.3 points and 9.0 rebounds.

But Beers had only attempted 13 field goals over the past two games after matchup up with UCLA's Lauren Betts on Monday and then facing a Kansas City team who put their defensive focus into stopping the Sooners from getting the ball into the post much Wednesday.

But Beers had plenty of success inside against the Lions on Friday, finishing with a team-high 20 points and 11 rebounds. Seven of Beers' points came in the second quarter when OU outscored North Alabama 30-16.

Beers was 6 for 11 from the field.

Baranczyk has made a point of encouraging Beers to be more assertive offensively.

"When you hear from coach, it's like, 'OK, I've got to do it,' when you hear from your teammates, 'You have to do it in order for us to win,' it hits you a little different, especially for Payton and Sahara. I respect them tremendously."

It was Beers' second double-double of the season and 17th in her time at Oklahoma.

Caya Smith Comes up Big Defensively

Sophomore Caya Smith finished with just one point but made a big impact in her nearly 14 minutes on the court.

Smith finished with a career-high five steals.

She came into the game with just five career steals in her 20-game OU career.

"I thought Caya was really good today," Baranczyk said. "... I like her energy. I like her willingness to want to learn. I like her presence right now. The offensive movement, the flow, that's going to come as time goes but she knows that we need her to play defense and I thought she came out today to be able to learn and obviously she got some big steals because of it."

Read More Oklahoma Women's Basketball

Aaliyah Chavez Hits Buzzer Beater

Raegan Beers Breaks Through

Caya Smith Comes up Big Defensively