The Oklahoma Sooners earned their second top 25 win of the season on Tuesday night, defeating the No. 25 (Coaches Poll) Michigan Wolverines 72-62.
It was a hard-fought win as the Wolverines tested the Sooners physically and pushed the pace offensively. And on a night when Oklahoma didn’t shoot their best, they still found a way to come out on top in the end.
Here are three takeaways from the win.
Experience Shines Through
Michigan is young and scrappy. They’d won nine in a row coming into the Jumpman Invitational and gave Oklahoma everything they could handle. In the end, the Sooners were able to pull away.
The Sooners trailed 39-35 with just over six minutes to play in the third quarter. A 9-0 run, where Oklahoma scored on four of their next five possessions, helped the Sooners establish control of the game. And the Sooners never looked back. They outscored Michigan 37 to 23 over the final 16 minutes of game action.
Overcame Adversity
The Sooners came into the game shooting 50% from the field. Against Michigan, OU only shot 37.5% from the field and 30.8% from three. In the first half, Oklahoma shot just 31.4% from the field and were just 3 of 14 from three.
The Sooners also had 21 turnovers in the game. Oklahoma also had to overcome foul trouble for their leading scorer and rebounder, Raegan Beers.
It wasn’t the cleanest performance from one of the best shooting teams in the nation, but they were much better in the second half, where they shot 44.8% from the field and 41.7% from three.
Team Win
Despite her foul trouble, Beers chipped in nine points and 10 rebounds. The Sooners ended up with four players in double figures, including a team-high 12 points from Payton Verhulst and Skylar Vann. Lexy Keys chipped in 11 points off the bench, including 3 of 7 from three.
Oklahoma had eight players score at least six points in the game and received 23 points off the bench.
It wasn’t the cleanest performance for the Oklahoma Sooners. But they found a way to get a tough win in a neutral site contest against a top 25 team. They’ll hope to build on that performance with two more nonconference games against Omaha and New Mexico State before what will likely be a top 10 showdown against the Texas Longhorns to open SEC play.
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