Robertson has been bright spot
NORMAN — In the midst of a trying season for Oklahoma women's basketball, Taylor Robertson has been one of the bright spots. The freshman from McPherson, Kansas, is averaging 14.6 points per game, leading all major-conference players with 3.32 3-pointers per game and leading the Big 12 in free-throw percentage. She's coming off a seasonlow two-point performance against Kansas State in which she took no field-goal attempts. She'll try to turn things around Wednesday when the Sooners host Kansas.
Q: What's been the key to being able to shoot as well as you have?
A: "Just practice, just getting in the gym whenever I have outside of team practices and just getting up shots."
Did you expect to be able to shoot this well? Why did you have that confidence?
"Just from that practice, just hours and hours of just shooting and it just getting my shot grooved and just to make it where it feels good when I shoot it."
Have you seen the way teams have defended you change?
"Yeah. Now it's just like face-guarding. They don't leave, they just stand and just look at me the whole time. It wasn't really like that at the very beginning."
When did you start seeing that adjustment?
"Every game, it's like they didn't necessarily faceguard me, but they started paying a little more attention
to try to get out whenever I was getting ready to catch the ball to shoot it, but the first game I think that I really got face-guarded was probably Central Arkansas. In the middle of December. Then some teams did it and some teams kind of didn't but a lot of times now they do."
Do you feel like this team is making strides in a positive direction?
"I think we're getting better all-around, everything offense and defense and just everything. In practice, we do really good at times and it looks like we're a really good team. Well, we are. It's just not translating into games. It does sometimes but not for the whole 40 minutes." How frustrating has that been?
"It is frustrating just because the wins and losses isn't what we want it to be but yeah, I don' t know. It just kind of sucks that it's like that, but we all know it's going to get better."
Oklahoma vs. Kansas
By Ryan Aber raber@oklahoman.com KANSAS AT OKLAHOMA When: 7 p.m., Wednesday Where: Lloyd Noble Center, Norman TV: Fox Sports Oklahoma Radio: KOKC-AM1520 KREF-FM 99.3, 1400 AM
Three things to know
•Sophomore Ana Llanusa has led the Sooners in scoring in three consecutive games. Sunday against Kansas State, she finished with 33 points on 10-of-20 shooting. •Freshman Tatum Veitenheimer has 71 assists this season •Kansas won the first meeting between the teams 88-79 on Jan. 30 in Lawrence. That is the most points the Sooners have scored during their current 10-game losing streak.