Milestone eludes Coale once again as OU falls to Texas
NORMAN — Two weeks ago, win No. 500 seemed imminent for OU women's basketball coach Sherri Coale.
But after Tuesday's 70-53 loss to Texas at Lloyd Noble Center, Coale still remains short of the milestone.
Against the Longhorns, like has been the case during each of the games of the now fourgame losing streak, there was one segment of the game where things got away.
Tuesday, it was a four-minute stretch that started in the final minute of the first quarter.
But the time it ended and Oklahoma shook out of the funk, Texas had reeled off 14 consecutive points to take command.
The lead was never less than a dozen the rest of the way.
“We just panicked and were paralyzed for a bit,” Coale said.
Size has been an issue for the Sooners this season and it was again against Texas.
“If you're fronting the post and a shot's taken and it's missed, it's really hard when they're bigger and stronger to get around inside and get position and rebound,” Coale said. “And (the) guards didn't do a great job of blocking out either. There were some tips that could've gone our way had out guards been a little more disciplined.”
The Long horns outrebounded OU 45-32, grabbing 10 offensive rebounds and posting 13 second-chance points.
“Every time we didn't do our job blocking out, they got an offensive rebound and most every time it turned into points for them,” Coale said. “Then we had a couple turnovers in the channel that are impossible to defend in transition and that gave them some easy looks.
“The wheels fell off the wagon in the second quarter. I thought we put them back on and competed in the second half, but we just can't continue to dig holes like that for ourselves.”
OU shot just 36.2% from the floor and was just 3 of 16 from behind the 3-point line.
Taylor Robertson, Madi Williams and Mandy Simpson were a combined 15 for 28 from the field. The rest of the Sooners were just 6 of 30 — and that included a 4 of 8 second-half performance off the bench from freshman Liz Scott.
Williams had a game-high 16 points while Robertson made half of her six 3-point tries but had no other shots.
“She's got to do a better job of attacking the rim and not just hanging out at the 3-point line,” Coale said. “And we've got to do a better job with our spacing.”
The Sooners were without Ana Llanusa for the sixth consecutive game.