Carter ready to lend a hand in Baylor game

In the aftermath of Oklahoma’s 78-63 win against Iowa State, coach Sherri Coale sat at the dais in the media room at the Lloyd Noble Center flanked by redshirt senior guards Maddie Manning and Peyton Little.

The pair had just combined for 37 points in Wednesday night’s win, but, Coale said, there should’ve been one more player sitting with them.

Though Gioya Carter didn’t reach double-figures in the scoring column, she did dish out six assists, tying a career high in 35 minutes on the court — her season high. She also grabbed six rebounds and a team-high three steals.

“I like to pass more than I like to shoot,” Carter said Friday afternoon. “That’s my go-to is to pass-first. That gets me in a hard situation sometimes because I don’t shoot it. I’d rather pass it. I do like to nolook and do those types of passes. I’m comfortable with doing those things.”

It was just the kind of performance that Carter will need to build on as the No. 20 Sooners travel to Waco, Texas to take on No. 2 Baylor in their first meeting of the season.

The Lady Bears have been a force this year, dropping just one game to then-No. 3 Connecticut in November. Since then, Baylor has run through the conference with nine consecutive victories at a 31.5-point average margin of victory.

“They’re a really good transition team on offense,” Carter said. “We were just trying to work on getting back in defensive transition. I just want to play free and let the game come to me like I did in Iowa State. I don’t want to look to facilitate or look to score, I just want to do what’s open at the time and just have a clear mind.”

Oklahoma (16-5, 7-2 Big 12) enters the contest in third place behind Baylor and Texas in Big 12 standings. Beating the Lady Bears (20-1, 9-0) would go a long way in grabbing a top seed at the Big 12 tournament, and though the road to a conference championship is difficult with a loss to Texas already on their record, the Sooners aren’t ruling anything out.

“We talk about what’s right in front of us,” Coale said. “There’s nothing more important than the next game we play … we try to take it in bite size pieces. We just control the things that we can.

“We don’t have any control over five games down the line or what’s happening in other games across the conference right now. All we can control is ourselves and that’s where our focus is.”