CYCLONES ROUT SOONERS
Iowa State defeated Oklahoma 91-70 in Norman Wednesday in front of a season-best crowd comprised mostly of elementary students and teachers there for Sooner Jr. Fan Field Trip Day
NORMAN—Late in Wednesday morning's game, with Oklahoma trailing by 20, the Lloyd Noble Center crowd went crazy, screaming and yelling on the Sooners.
“I finally figured out it said, `Cheer like a champion' (on the scoreboard),” Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale said. “So they were following directions. I love that. Might be a future player in the midst somewhere.”
Coale's Sooners lost 91-70 to No. 20 Iowa State in front of a season-best crowd of 8,251, mostly elementary school children and teachers there for Sooner Jr. Fan Field Trip Day.
They cheered everything from the lights going out for pregame player introductions to Oklahoma freshman Jessi Murcer's 3- pointer just 26 seconds into the game to the dogs performing the halftime s how. They cheered when the Sooners scored and when Iowa State scored and when the “Baby Shark” song was played late.
And as her toughest season in years gets closer to an ending that almost certainly will be Oklahoma missing the NCAA Tournament f or the first time since 1999, Coale couldn't help but think back to a trip she took with her
seventh-grade basketball team.
The group bused from Coale's hometown of Healdton to Oklahoma City's Myriad Convention Center to watch the Harlem Globetrotters.
“That was a really big deal to me,” Coale said. “And I never practiced ball handling in my life the way I practiced it after watching those guys.
“If it's a great experience
and you enjoy it and you allow yourself to be immersed in it, it can mark you for the future. So hopefully there are some future All-Americans in that crowd today who found a love for basketball by watching on a Wednesday morning.”
Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly, whose team dealt with weather delays which pushed back their arrival to Norman until Tuesday night,
said he had a headache after the game from the noise in the arena.
“We have to do these things in women' s basketball ,” Fennelly said .“There' s some young people here that probably have never been to a Sooner game and maybe down the road will be Oklahoma students. To be exposed to this environment, to see a lot of real high-quality young ladies running around doing some special things, hopefully they take something with them.”
Oklahoma trailed most of the game, though briefly tied it with 4:15 to play in the first half before the Cyclones finished the second quarter with a 14-3 run that ballooned to a 21-3 run early in the third.
More than 90 minutes after the game, Oklahoma's players remained in the locker room, sorting through the team's 12th loss in 13 games.