OU women's basketball: No. 17 Sooners knock off No. 11 Iowa State
NORMAN — Ana Llanusa was almost relentless.
“Keep posting up, keep posting up,” Llanusa yelled toward teammate Skylar Vann in the closing minutes of No. 17 OU’s Sunday game against No. 11 Iowa State.
Llanusa’s encouragement paid off, as she found Vann under the basket from the top of the key for a critical spin-o-rama layup in the closing seconds to help the Sooners knock off the Cyclones 82-79 at Lloyd Noble Center.
Llanusa looked like she’d delivered the dagger at the end of the third quarter, knocking down a 3-pointer from well behind the line to punctuate a 14-3 Sooners run to end the third and give them an 11-point edge heading into the fourth.
But Iowa State, which has struggled from beyond the arc in conference play and did for much of Sunday, came alive from distance in the fourth to steadily cut into the lead.
The Cyclones hit five 3-pointers in the quarter, each by a different player, the final by Danae Fritz with 3:23 remaining to give Iowa State its first lead since early in the second half.
From that point, the game turned into a slugfest, with both teams delivering blow after blow on the offensive end before, finally, the Sooners came up with the biggest stop.
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Fritz’ 3-pointer was the first of nine lead changes in the closing minutes, the final one coming on Vann’s spin move underneath the basket.
“I saw it in her eyes and I knew that she was gonna make it and knock it down and I think her resilience was really good in that moment,” Llanusa said.
Vann was prepared.
“I could just feel it like I was ready for that moment,” Vann said.
Much of the focus going into the game was on OU’s Aubrey Joens’ first meeting with her old team and her older sister, Ashley Joens.
Ashley Joens took over the game at times, scoring 10 points in the fourth quarter to finish with a game-high 27 points. But Joens was just 6 of 19 from the floor.
Llanusa led the Sooners with 23 points.
After Vann’s shot put the Sooners up 80-79, the Cyclones once again turned to Joens to try to save the day.
Joens drove baseline but Madi Williams, playing with four fouls, stuck with her and blocked Joens’ shot and grabbed the rebound as the clock ticked down.
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“I think she didn’t have a choice,” Sooners coach Jennie Baranczyk said of Williams’ late play. “Had to just play straight up and we had to do the best we could.”
Taylor Robertson hit a pair of free throws at the other end to put the Sooners up three, and then Emily Ryan’s 3-pointer at the buzzer fell well short over Llanusa’s outstretched hand to give OU the victory.
“Thought that was a great college basketball game,” Cyclones coach Bill Fennelly said. “We just were one play or two short, but that’s this league and that’s the world.”
Aubrey Joens was scoreless in nearly 13 minutes for the Sooners (12-2, 2-1 Big 12).
The Cyclones (10-3, 2-1) suffered a significant loss less than two minutes in when 6-foot-6 Stephanie Soares went down with an apparent knee injury.
Soares, one of the best bigs in the conference if not the country, was already making a significant impact on the game. Soares had a bucket and a block before exiting the game.
“I’m not making excuses,” Fennelly said. “But she’s pretty good. We had to play some people and play some lineups that we’ve never even practiced.”
Fennelly said Soares would undergo an MRI on Monday, but that he wasn’t expecting positive news.
Soares is the fourth-leading scorer in the Big 12 at 15.4 points per game, leads the conference in blocks at 3.2 per game and is second in the league in rebounding at 10.8 per game.
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This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma Sooners women's basketball beats Iowa State Cyclones
