Getting another shot
DePaul downed Oklahoma 111-108 in the Sooners’ second game of the season on a last-second shot. Now, Oklahoma is facing the Blue Demons’ lethal 3-point shooting again on a much bigger stage.
Off-balance as she stepped behind the 3-point arc, DePaul guard Amarah Coleman launched a shot with one second left in the first overtime of a November meeting with Oklahoma.
The shot swished through the net, breaking the tie to give the Blue Demons a 111-108 win over Oklahoma in the Sooners’ second game of the season.
Now, Oklahoma is preparing to face DePaul and its lethal 3-point shooting again — this time on a much bigger stage with much higher stakes.
After slipping into the NCAA Tournament as one of the last four in, the No. 12 seed Sooners will meet No. 5 seed DePaul (26-7) in the first round on Friday morning (11:30 a.m., ESPN2).
“It’s kind of nice,” guard Maddie Manning said. “A lot of times you go into tournaments and you see teams that you’ve never seen before and know nothing about. So it’s nice.
“That game was an entertaining game. That’s what everyone came away from it saying. We’re definitely happy at a second shot at the them.”
To win Friday, OU will have to limit that prolific 3-point scoring — something it failed to do in a Big 12 semifinal loss to TCU.
In that game, the Sooners allowed the Horned Frogs to convert 9 of 15 shots from beyond the arc — including 6 of 7 in the second quarter. By the time OU (16-14) locked down the 3-point line, it was too late. Despite holding TCU to just 1 of 5 from long range in the second half, OU fell 90-83.
“The key in the TCU game and the Big 12 Tournament was take away the 3 and the second quarter, they got any and every one that they wanted,” coach Sherri Coale said. “Our attention to detail was poor. I told our team, this is about having a sense of urgency and a sense of purpose in every single possession of every single game. Had we done that throughout November, December, January and February, we wouldn’t have been in the quagmire we found ourselves in the last couple of days.”
For the season, OU has give up an average of 7.4 3-pointers per game, allowing opponents to shoot 34.8 percent from beyond the arc.
Meanwhile, the Big East champions have made 398 of 1,104 long-range attempts. Nearly half of DePaul’s shot attempts come from the 3-point line.
“His team is crazy hard to guard,” Coale said of DePaul coach Doug Bruno and his team. “It’s ridiculous. They shot 45 3s the last time we played them. They average making 12 a game. Nobody else does that.”
Itmakesforahigh-scoring and high-octane brand of offense. Each of the last two times the Sooners have faced DePaul — including once in the 2014 NCAA Tournament — both teams broke the century mark.
“They’re a bit of a conundrum, but we’ve at least been on the floor with them,” Coale said. “We’ve seen it. I got to thinking last night, if we can just hold them to 99, we might win.”
Unlike the men’s tournament, the 12-5 upset in the women’s tournament is much less common. Twenty 12 seeds have won their first round games, most recently happening a year ago when Quinnipiac beat Marquette.
But even with the odds not exactly in its favor, Coale feels a fight brewing within her team.
“We’re standing, maybe in the mud and muck, but we’re standing,” she said.
“We’ve earned an opportunity and now we have this glorious opportunity. Now what are we going to do with it? And if the last week and especially the 24 hours leading up to the selection show did not rattle some cages and pierce some of our players, then nothing will.
“So the question is, what are we going to do with it?”