OU Women’s Basketball: Sooners Secure Big 12 Regular Season Champions After Exhilarating Win Over Texas

The Oklahoma Sooners are the Big 12 Women’s Basketball Regular Season Conference Champions for the second-straight season, and they did so in thrilling fashion. Oklahoma (21-7, 15-2) took on Texas (26-4, 13-4) on Wednesday night. For the Sooners, it was obviously an opportunity to secure the regular season conference title.

The Longhorns entered the matchup as the No. 3-ranked team in the country, which was going to be a tall task for Jennie Baranczyk No. 20-ranked Sooners. While Payton Verhulst was the Sooners’ leading scorer on the night with 18 points, it was Lexy Keys who was the true star of the night. She knocked down a go-ahead 3-pointer with the time expiring to ensure victory and defeat Texas 71-70.

It was an exhilarating win that came in a fitting fashion as Oklahoma trailed by as much as 13 points in the second-half. To cap off a double-digit, second-half comeback with a game-winning 3-pointer, there’s not a better way for Oklahoma to have taken down Texas.

“I’m really proud that we didn’t quit in December,” Baranczyk said in postgame interviews. “When it’s we, it’s not just as a coach. It’s out academic advisor, its our athletic trainer, its our strength coach, its our marketing people. I mean, you name it, the number of people that impact these women on a daily basis. … (The coaches and staff) stayed together to allow (the players) to grow.”

Barancyzyk’s Oklahoma squad is 15-2 in conference play after going 6-7 in its non-conference games. The turnaround on the season has been incredible. Resilient is a good way to describe this Sooners team, who is taking a Big 12 Regular Season Champions title on their way out of the Big 12 and into the SEC.

“Honestly, I think I ended up in the right place at the right time getting there, but I think we continued, as a team, to just keep playing hard,” Keys said after the game.

The Sooners have one final game as they take on unranked Kansas on March 3 to cap off their regular season, just before the Big 12 Tournament gets underway.

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