Strength to strength
Oklahoma, Texas could offer boost to SEC women’s hoops
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The University of Oklahoma women’s basketball team was a game above .500 after a loss to Southern three days before Christmas, and there seemed little reason to believe the Sooners would turn around their fortunes when their last league schedule as a Big 12 member tipped off the following week.
More than two months later, coach Jennie Baranczyk’s team has lost only three more times.
Led by Skylar Vann and Louisville transfer Payton Verhulst, the No. 19 Sooners (21-8) rolled to their first Big 12 regularseason title since 2009, and it comes just before they join rival Texas in departing for the Southeastern Conference next season.
That strong run also gave Oklahoma the No. 1 seed when the conference tournament begins Thursday in Kansas City.
“This team has really found itself to be a really good team,” Baranczyk said, “and I don’t mean good because we won a Big 12 championship. I mean good because they cover for each other. They help each other. They believe in each other. And they never quit on each other, and they never have a second of doubt, even when it seems impossible.”
The Sooners have earned a double bye into the quarterfinals as the 14-team Big 12 tournament begins at T-Mobile Center, where the men have played for years but the women are getting equal billing for the first time. They had played down the street at Municipal Auditorium.
Oklahoma will play on Saturday night — facing the winner of Friday’s second-round matchup between eighthseeded Oklahoma State and ninth-seeded TCU — as it seeks its first Big 12 tourney title since back-to-back championships in 2006-07.
“The tradition here is amazing, and everyone knows that,” said Sooners guard Lexy Keys, a transfer from Oklahoma State. “This program is amazing. This team is amazing. Playing against them, I knew that going in.”
The road to the Big 12 tournament title won’t be easy, though.
The second-seeded Longhorns (27-4), who will play Saturday night against Friday’s winner between No. 7 seed Kansas and No. 10 seed BYU, are the highest-ranked team in the bracket at No. 6 in the AP Top 25 this week. In all, though, there are four teams in the poll and three more receiving votes in the Big 12, and each of those seven is almost certainly a lock for the NCAA tournament’s 68-team field.
“It’s been a little bit of a grind,” said Texas coach Vic Schaefer, who came to the Longhorns from the SEC’s Mississippi State in 2020 and whose Longhorns won the Big 12 tourney two years ago, “and now we go into the third season, which is the conference tournament, and then the fourth season, which is the NCAA tournament. And both of those seasons can be a lot
“The tradition here is amazing, and everyone knows that. This program is amazing. This team is amazing. Playing against them, I knew that going in.”
— OKLAHOMA GUARD LEXY KEYS
shorter than what we just ran through.”
Especially in the Big 12, where 16th-ranked Kansas State — the No. 3 seed — was as high as No. 2 in the nation this season.
“We definitely ended conference play on a good note,” Longhorns guard Shaylee Gonzales said. “Obviously we’re going to take that in but realize we’ve got games ahead of us that we need to prepare for. They’re all good teams. And we’ve all played before.”
The women’s tournament previously ran alongside the men’s tournament, which allowed fans traveling to Kansas City to catch both teams for their favorite school in the same week. The Big 12 wanted women to have the same spotlight at T-Mobile Center as the men, though, and that meant moving up the start of the tourney by a week, with the championship game set for Tuesday night.
Next season, Oklahoma and Texas will join a conference that currently boasts the reigning national champion, LSU, as well as the program with the second-most NCAA tournament titles, with Tennessee’s eight trailing only the University of Connecticut. The SEC’s 11 NCAA titles overall — South Carolina won it all in 2017 and 2022 — are the most for any conference, with UConn winning eight of its championships as a Big East program and three representing the American Athletic Conference.
SEC tourney underway
The SEC tipped off its postseason Wednesday at Bon Secours Arena in Greenville, South Carolina, where the lowest four seeds of the 14-team league tournament faced off.
In the opener, Eniya Russell came off the bench to score 19 points and lead 12th-seeded Kentucky past 13th-seeded Georgia, 64-50.
Russell shot 6-for-12 from the field, including 2-for-4 from 3-point range, and was 5-of-6 from the foul line for the Wildcats (11-19), who avenged their 72-65 loss to the Lady Bulldogs from the regular season and will face fourthseeded Tennessee (17-11) in the second round Thursday.
Ajae Petty scored 11 points and added 14 rebounds for Kentucky, while Brooklynn Miles had 11 points while shooting 3-for-4 from the field and making four of her six free throws.
The Lady Bulldogs (12-17) were led by Javyn Nicholson’s game-high 23 points, but no one else on the roster sniffed double figures as Jordan Isaacs was next with seven points and Taniyah Thompson had six.
The Wildcats took the lead with 8:08 left in the first quarter and did not give it up. It was 36-22 by halftime, with Russell racking up 10 points by intermission.
In the second game, Leilani Correa scored 15 points, Alberte Rimdal hit a key jumper and 11th-seeded Florida turned back 14th-seeded Missouri 66-60.
With the help of a 16-0 run to start the second quarter, the Gators (15-14) opened a 48-28 lead early in the second half. The Tigers (11-19) got back in the game with a 14-0 run in the third quarter and closed within 60-57 with 4:07 to play.
Rimdal’s jumper blunted an 8-0 Missouri run, and after both teams missed several chances, Jeriah Warren scored for the Gators. Aliyah Matharu made two free throws with 39 seconds to play for a 66-57 lead. Mizzou closed the game shooting 1-for-9.
Florida takes on eighthseeded Vanderbilt (22-8) on Thursday.
Matharu had 14 points and nine rebounds for the Gators, while Rimdal scored 12 points and Warren added 10 with eight rebounds.
Ashton Judd scored 17 points for Missouri (11-19) and Grace Slaughter had 14.
Thursday’s schedule begins with No. 8 seed Mississippi State (21-10) facing No. 9 Texas A&M (18-11) at noon, with Kentucky-Tennessee coming 25 minutes after the conclusion of that matchup. The second session of the day starts at 6 p.m. as No. 10 Arkansas (18-13) and No. 7 Auburn (19-10) play, with Florida-Vanderbilt closing out the round.
The top four seeds — No. 1 South Carolina (29-0), followed by LSU (26-4), Ole Miss (22-7) and Alabama (23-8) — have double byes into Friday’s quarterfinals.