OU Basketball: Three Takeaways as Oklahoma Routs Vanderbilt

A third-quarter outburst and an endless barrage from Raegan Beers rocketed Oklahoma past Vanderbilt on Thursday night at Lloyd Noble Center.

The No. 16-ranked Sooners took down the Commodores 101-81 as OU improved to 20-6 overall and 8-5 in Southeastern Conference. Vanderbilt fell to 19-8 and 6-7.

For OU, it’s their fourth win in a row and their fourth consecutive 20-win season under coach Jennie Baranczyk. It's also a program-record fifth 100-point game of the season.

OU began the week at No. 15 in the first NCAA Top 26 reveal, meaning the Sooners would host an NCAA Tournament first-round game and be one of four No. 2 seeds in the 68-team field.

The Sooners have recorded 20 or more wins 24 times in program history, and Baranczyk joins Sherri Coale as the only OU coaches to achieve four consecutive 20-win seasons.

OU plays next at Arkansas at 2 p.m. Sunday in Fayetteville.

Here are three takeaways from Thursday’s game:

Second-half surge

The Sooners broke open a close game with a devastating 34-17 third quarter that stretched to a 19-0 run into the fourth quarter and built a 29-point lead.

That lead was led by a whole lot of Beers. Beers scored a career-high 30 points on 11-of-13 shooting and added 14 rebounds.

After Vanderbilt cut a 10-point lead to 55-51 midway through the third, OU quickly stretched it back to a double-digit lead.

Beers and Zaya Vann traded assists for back-to-back three-point plays, and Lexi Keys buried a 3 from the top of the circle after another offensive rebound by Beers, putting OU up 69-54.

The lead swelled to 77-54 going into the fourth quarter as Beers scored 11 in the period on 4-of-4 shooting. OU shot 59 percent from the field and made 4-of-9 from 3-point range and out rebounded the Commodores 17-5 in the quarter.

Vann and Payton Verhulst scored 16 points each for the Sooners, while Skylar Vann added 13.

First-half fumbles

Oklahoma came in averaging 22 turnovers per game in conference play, and had 12 with three minutes to go before halftime, including a stretch of five miscues with no field goals in just 2 1/2 minutes. The field goal drought lasted 3 1/2 minutes before Beers got loose underneath for a transition bucket as OU built a 43-37 lead at halftime.

Vann hit back-to-back 3-pointers — both times beneficiary of an offensive rebound and assist from her sister, Skylar Vann — and Beers hit a layup followed by another 3 from Sahara Williams for an 11-0 run that put Oklahoma in front 21-11 late in the first quarter.

Vandy sharpshooter stays hot

Had OU contained the Commodores’ best player, the game would have been a blowout early.

But the Sooners had no defense for Vandy’s Mikayla Blakes, who single-handedly kept her team in the game.

Blakes, a freshman, set the NCAA freshman record on Jan. 30 with 53 points against Florida. Then last Sunday, she beat that mark with 55 points in a win over Auburn. She became the first NCAA freshman and only the fourth Division I player since 1999-2000 to record multiple 50-point games in one season.

Blakes had 24 of her team’s 37 points in the first half alone — her 17th game this season of 20 points or more.

Blakes played all 20 minutes of the first half and hit 7-of-16 field goals, including a scorching 5-of-8 performance from 3-point range. She also made 5-of-6 free throws and contributed two rebounds and two assists.

Blakes immediately nailed another 3 to start the second half, her career-high sixth of the night, then added another at the 6 1/2-minute mark of the third quarter to cut a once double-digit deficit to 55-49.

Blakes eventually cooled off in the second half and finished with 34 points in 37 minutes.