Sooners face Plum, No. 12 Washington
Oklahoma takes on Washington and the NCAA’s all-time scorer, Kelsey Plum, at 8 p.m. Monday in a second-round tournament game in Seattle.
SEATTLE — Washington senior guard Kelsey Plum, the most prolific scorer in the history of women’s college basketball, isn’t going to surprise Oklahoma.
The Sooners have seen this act before.
Twice in the past two seasons, the Sooners and Huskies have squared off in early nonconference games. Plum scored 45 in their first meeting and 30 in the next, but twice OU defeated Washington, including a 71-68 victory on the Huskies’ home court in December 2015.
No. 3 seed Washington (28-5) and No. 6 Oklahoma (23-9) will meet again at Alaska Airlines Arena in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Monday. Tipoff is 8 p.m. for an ESPN2 telecast.
The winner advances to the Oklahoma City Regional at Chesapeake Energy Arena and a Sweet 16 showdown against second-seeded Mississippi State on Friday.
A sellout crowd of 10,000 is expected at Washington’s home court. It was on that court last month that Plum, the ESPNW National Player of the Year, scored a careerhigh 57 points against Utah to break the NCAA Division I scoring record — which now stands at 3,460 points and counting.
“The first time you are on the floor with (Plum), you don’t really know what to do,” Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale said Sunday. “The next time you are on the floor you have it figured out a little more and the more familiarity you have, the more confident you feel about doing certain things. Certainly that is the case, and I think our guys are pretty familiar with Kelsey.
“At the end of the day, no matter how familiar you are with her you have to figure out how to stop her or at least figure out how to slow her down. Nobody has been able to do that really. Nobody.”
Plum led the Huskies to the program’s first Final Four appearance last year. She leads the nation this season with 31.6 points per game, and OU point guard Gabbi Ortiz called the matchup a “super exciting” one for the Sooners.
“That’s what you want. On the big stage, you want to come down and play the best players that there are,” Ortiz said. “It’s good for women’s basketball, and I’m excited for the game.”
Plum, a 5-foot-8 lefthanded point guard, dominates the ball for the Huskies’ offense, and Oritz called her a triple threat: Plum can drive left, she can drive right, and she’s shooting 42 percent on 3-pointers.
The Sooners will also have to contend with Washington’s 6-2 senior post, Chantel Osahor, a deft passer who has mastered the pick and roll with Plum. Osahor leads the nation with 15.4 rebounds per game and averages 38 percent shooting on 3s.
That will be an intriguing matchup inside for Oklahoma center Vionise Pierre-Louis, who had one of her best all-around performances (17 points, nine rebounds and nine blocks) in the Sooners’ first-round victory over Gonzaga on Saturday.