Oklahoma’s march toward SEC play rolled on at the Lloyd Noble Center on Sunday.
The No. 10-ranked Sooners overpowered Omaha, dominating the Mavericks en route to a 111-65 victory.
It was a wire-to-wire victory for Jennie Baranczyk’s squad, who were led by star center Raegan Beers.
Beers was excellent from the start, scoring seven points in the first quarter to fuel a career-tying 28-point day which led all scorers. She also added nine rebounds and an assist to round out an impressive performance.
OU moved to 11-1 overall on the year while Omaha fell to 8-5, and the Sooners have just one more game in non-conference play next Sunday before opening the SEC slate against No. 6 Texas.
Here are Sooners on SI’s three takeaways from the win:
Stars Lead the Way
The expected names led from the front on Sunday.
Beers’ sprinted out with her seven points in the first quarter, but Skylar Vann was close behind her.
Vann chipped in six points over the first 10 minutes on 2-of-3 shooting from deep, and Beers pulled down five first quarter rebounds to help the Sooners assert themselves early. Overall, Vann finished with 12 points and eight rebounds.
While Beers and Vann formed a formidable scoring duo, Payton Verhulst stuffed the stat sheet by adding a bit of everything.
Verhulst ended with eight points, four rebounds and two assists, helping to spread the load and keep the workload down on everyone across the entire team as OU approaches the start of a grueling conference stretch on the horizon.
Difference-Making Depth
True freshman Zya Vann was excellent again off the bench.
Omaha shot 44.4 percent in the second quarter to try and stay in the game, but Zya’s offensive output ensured that the Mavericks would gain no ground.
In a six-minute burst, she hit three shots to pour in seven quick points.
Zya Vann finished with 10 points, three rebounds and five assists.
Per usual, veteran Lexy Keys was steady, but a new bench piece rose up to play a big role on Sunday.
Kierston Johnson, who is usually called upon to frustrate opposing offenses with her length and to pull down rebounds for the Sooners, added a season-high 12 points.
Reyna Scott finished one point shy of her season-high in scoring with nine points, and Nevaeh Tott, Sahara Williams and Liz Scott all hit multiple buckets to spread the scoring evenly across the whole team.
Oklahoma’s starting five is ready to compete with the titans in the SEC, but the Sooners’ ability to build a massive rotation of quality players will be the difference between advancing past the second round in the NCAA Tournament, which has been OU’s ceiling the past three years.
Handle With Care
Baranczyk’s team has dominated most of its competition throughout non-conference play, but taking care of the basketball hasn’t always been a given even when OU wins big.
On Sunday, the Sooners made few mistakes in the first three quarters, allowing Oklahoma to amass a massive lead and empty the bench well into the fourth quarter.
OU ended with 17 turnovers, with the worst stretch coming in the third quarter when Oklahoma made five miscues, but the Sooners only had eight turnovers in an efficient first half before Baranczyk started to mix the lineups late.
Omaha was only able to turn the mistakes into 13 points on the other end. The Sooners’ defense was able to make up for most of the turnovers, ensuring the grip on the game never slipped.
The Mavericks committed 20 turnovers, which turned into 29 OU points, and Oklahoma won the rebounding battle 57-33 to close out the strong showing.