The University of Oklahoma’s head women’s basketball coach, Jennie Baranczyk, frequently yelled, “This is not JV,” at the referees during the team’s game against Wichita State on Tuesday evening.
The Shockers looked like a junior varsity squad to the #9-ranked Sooners at times, showing tons of fight but ultimately losing, 79-49, in Charles Koch Arena.
“We don’t look at moral victories,” WSU head coach Terry Nooner said. “You either win the game or you lose the game … I think for us, it just shows that when we’re locked in, when we’re playing together and we’re playing as a team … I think we can play with anybody.”
WSU dropped under .500 for the first time this season at 2-3. Oklahoma stayed undefeated at 5-0. The Sooners held the Shockers to their lowest point total of the young season, while Oklahoma scored its second-fewest points in a game this year.
Last year, Wichita State kicked off its season with a 92-68 loss at the Sooners. Baranczyk said the Shockers are “headed in the right direction.”
“I think they’re going to have a really good year,” she said. “Obviously, it’s early. But they’re (scrappy), and they’re a very good basketball team. They’re well-coached.”
The Shockers created 24 turnovers, the most they’ve forced all season and the most given up by Oklahoma. Wichita State also kept pace on the boards until the second half.
“They’re not a high-turnover team,” Nooner said. “They take care of the basketball. They’ve got great guards, they’ve got great ball handlers … So I think, you know, we were very disruptive. But when you create 24 turnovers, you’ve got to get more than 18 points out of it.”
Oklahoma simply out-shot Wichita State. The Sooners made 47% of their buckets from the field and a scorching 48% from 3-point range. Meanwhile, the Shockers shot just 30% from the field, their second-lowest shooting percentage this season.
“I was pleased with the fight, because it wasn’t the type of game where we were close because we shot (and) made 20 threes or we shot 80% from the field; it was a tough and rugged game,” Nooner said.
Wichita State kept the game competitive for the first five minutes with more energy on the court, maintaining a tie, 9-9. However, the Shockers went cold for the final three minutes of the quarter, failing to score a basket as Oklahoma went on a 13-0 run to open a 25-11 lead.
WSU showed mettle in keeping the deficit the same at the end of the second quarter, 48-34. For the second consecutive game, graduate student guard Taylor Jameson ended the half with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer — but this time, it was closer to the arc and not the half-court line. Jameson scored seven points while playing the entirety of the second period.
Nooner said it took a while for the team to adjust to Oklahoma’s pace but was impressed with the second-quarter effort once they did.
“I don’t think players sometimes understand the speed and pace until you’ve actually been out there for the first time,” Nooner said. “So I think once we got adjusted, you could see us in the second quarter kind of figure out how we need to score, how we need to guard, as far as, you know, half court defense, and we played pretty fast.”
The teams traded cold stretches in the third quarter.
The Sooners scored the opening bucket of the second half, and then went scoreless for the next four minutes of game time. That run was broken on a third-chance 3-pointer that became a four-point play when the shooter was fouled.
Nooner isolated that play as a turning point in the game.
“If you come up with that rebound, just, you know, how different does the game look with, we’re giving them some more game pressure and that kind of stuff,” Nooner said. “So that was a huge play for us.”
The Oklahoma score led into a four-minute scoring drought for Wichita State where the Sooners ballooned their lead to 24 points, 63-39.
By the middle of the fourth quarter, Oklahoma was cruising with backups in the game as the energy and intensity that kept Wichita State in the game for the first half dissipated.
The Shockers didn’t score in the last three minutes of the game and netted only 15 points in the second half.
Sophomore guard Salese Blow, normally one of the most reliable players on the offensive end for Wichita State, was one of a few players who didn’t have her shooting form in the game. She shot 1-9 from the field and scored just six points.
Murray led the Shockers in points with 14, a new season-high. She added six rebounds, three coming on the offensive boards.
Murray said playing Oklahoma last year gave her confidence she could compete with them, but she also has improved from last year to this year in general. However, she said the team “couldn’t keep up with the pace” in the second half.
“I feel like going into the next half, we knew it was down by 14, and we tried not to let up … but things happen,” Murray said.
With the loss, Wichita State ended a five-game homestand to open the season. The Shockers will take the road for the first time at the Emerald Coast Classic on Nov. 25 and 26, in Niceville, Florida.
The first of two games for the Shockers will be against an old Missouri Valley Conference opponent, Creighton University, on Monday. Tipoff against the Bluejays is set for 7:30 p.m.
