'I love the belief that we have': No. 23 Oklahoma rallies for first win vs. No. 14 Baylor since 2015
NORMAN — In what was shaping up as a showdown between the respective superstars — Taylor Robertson for No. 23 Oklahoma, NyLyssa Smith for No. 14 Baylor — the Sooners’ Skylar Vann stole the show down the stretch on Wednesday night.
The sophomore from Edmond scored a career-high 22 points – including the 3-pointer that put the Sooners ahead for the first time with 2:55 left – and made a clutch steal, grabbed a key offensive rebound and blocked a Baylor shot after that as Oklahoma twice rallied from 10-point deficits to beat the Bears 83-77 at Lloyd Noble Center.
Oklahoma (14-2, 3-1 Big 12) ended a 13-game losing streak in its series against Baylor (10-4, 0-2), which dated to 2015. The Sooners also recorded their first win over a top-15 team since beating then-No. 8 Texas 74-73 on Feb. 18, 2017. Oklahoma had lost 19 straight games to top-15 opponents.
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“I love the balance that we have,” OU coach Jennie Baranczyk said. “I love the belief that we have. I love that we just kept playing. When we focus on ourselves and play like that and share the ball, it’s really fun and the scoreboard takes care of itself when you do that.
“You’re probably going to think it’s (a bigger win) that we do. I think for us, I think we’re a really good basketball team and I think we just focus on us playing and getting better. We’re in year one of a new system and we try to focus less, really, on our opponent. We have respect for our opponent, we try to prepare for our opponent, but we didn’t make the game this huge game. We just made the game a game and an opportunity for us to get to play.”
Oklahoma also celebrated a Big 12 record during a postgame ceremony. Robertson went 5 of 5 from 3-point range against Baylor, scoring 15 points, to increase her career 3-point total to 397, moving past Laurie Koehn, who made 396 3-pointers for Kansas State from 2001 to 2005.
“It’s really cool,” Robertson said. “None of us ever have (beaten Baylor). It’s been awhile since OU has beaten them. It’s really cool because they’re a really, really good team. For us to go out and hang around with them enough and give ourselves a chance at the end and gut it out and get stops when we needed to and hit shots … when we had to, it’s just really cool. I’m glad we all got to experience it.”
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Baylor lost even though its star, Big 12 preseason player of the year NaLyssa Smith, matched her career high with 30 points. Smith, who leads NCAA Division I with 11 double-doubles this season, just missed another, grabbing eight rebounds.
But despite the heroics of Robertson and Smith, Vann was the one making the critical plays on Wednesday. Oklahoma, which hadn’t led the entire game, pulled even for a fourth time at 75-75 with 3:36 left on a basket by Madi Williams, who scored 18 points, before Vann’s third 3-pointer of the game put the Sooners up 78-75.
With Oklahoma clinging to an 80-77 lead, Vann came up with a steal with 1:19 left, then rebounded a miss by Williams to preserve a possession. After Williams split a pair of free throws with 37.9 seconds left, Vann – playing with four fouls – blocked a layup attempt by Baylor’s Jordan Lewis. Nevaen Tot rebounded for the Sooners and hit two free throws with 19.6 seconds left, making it 83-77.
On the block, “I hesitated a little bit, because I did think about my fouls, but I had to kind of take it for the team,” Vann said. “I felt really confident and that I could time it right. It was like the coolest thing I’ve ever done.”
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During the final minutes, Vann said she was “locked in. At that point, every loose ball is mine. … I have to do what I can.”
Baylor missed a pair of 3-point attempts in the final seconds. The game was the first for the Bears since Jan. 2 due to a program pause caused by COVID-19. Queen Egbo added 16 points for the Bears.
Oklahoma missed its first six shots and had four turnovers in the first 4½ minutes, allowing Baylor to jump to a 10-0 lead. The Sooners pulled even at 21-21 on a basket by Vann with 8:37 left in the second quarter, but again went cold, and Baylor responded with another 10-0 run, going up 31-21 on a put-back by Smith with 6:06 left in the quarter.
The Bears led by seven and appeared to have the final possession of the half, but Tot poked the basketball free from Baylor’s Sarah Andrews. Tot pushed the ball forward to Williams, who found Vann open for a layup right before the buzzer, pulling Oklahoma within 41-36.
Oklahoma came within 59-57 with 2:07 left in the third quarter before consecutive three-point plays by Smith rebuilt Baylor’s lead. The Sooners tied the game four times before taking their first lead on Vann’s late 3-pointer.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU vs. Baylor women's basketball: Sooners post big win over Bears
