Oklahoma women's basketball has another chance to clinch Big 12 title vs. Texas
NORMAN — For the second consecutive season, OU women’s basketball gets a chance to clinch a share of the Big 12 title at home against Texas.
Last season didn’t go so well.
But Jennie Baranczyk and her team are hoping their 6 p.m. Wednesday matchup with the No. 3 Longhorns at Lloyd Noble Center can be a different story than last season’s 67-45 loss.
“It’s not always in life that you get this same opportunity twice,” Baranczyk said. “This same thing happened last year where this game became so big. We weren’t ready for it, so I’m excited for us to just, at some point that game’s going to be a game and we’ve got to really work hard tomorrow.”
The Sooners bounced back from last season’s late loss to the Longhorns to win their final two games of the regular season and finish tied with Texas for the conference title.
A win Saturday would give OU the outright Big 12 title and the top seed in next week’s Big 12 Tournament.
“We’ve been asked … so many times and I’ve pushed it off saying, ‘It’s still early in the season and anybody can go for it,’” Baranczyk said. “Now, it’s a reality that we’re later in the season. I think it’s special anytime you can do that and you can sit there and not just dream about it but you potentially have an opportunity to cut some nets down.
“However, that’s still not our focus. We’ve got to make sure that we’re not trying to make it and not that we’re not trying to make it bigger than it is because obviously it’s a huge deal, but it’s one that we’ve got to just continue to just have fun playing. Continue to grow. Continue to get better. And I think that’s something we learned a year ago that I’m really hopeful we get to learn tomorrow.”
Here are two other things to know about the game:
More: OU basketball projected to be No. 8 seed in ESPN's NCAA Tournament bracketology
Texas Longhorns surging
Since OU’s 91-87 win over the Longhorns in Austin on Jan. 24, Texas has won eight consecutive games to get back in the conference title race.
A big piece of the difference for Texas has been the return of senior forward DeYona Gaston.
Gaston missed four games, the third of which was the loss to the Sooners.
Since her return, Gaston is averaging 10.6 points, 3.1 rebounds and is shooting 64.7%.
“That’s obviously a huge difference, but I feel like they’re just really good,” Baranczyk said. “We know that, so I don’t think that we are going to really focus on what’s so much different in terms for them. We’ve got to be really good. We’ve got to rebound the basketball clearly. We’ve got to really guard the paint.”
More: Mussatto: Jennie Baranczyk has OU women's basketball on cusp of history after Bedlam rout
OU Senior Day to honor two
While OU has seven seniors on the roster, only two will go through Senior Day ceremonies at Wednesday’s game.
Jordan Moser and Kennady Tucker will be the only players who will be honored.
“The two of them have been incredible for us,” Baranczyk said.
The other seniors — Nevaeh Tot, Lexy Keys, Aubrey Joens, Skylar Vann and Liz Scott — are all expected to return next season.
“I think the legacy of the program has been passed down,” Baranczyk said. “I think we had great seniors the year before and then had great seniors the year before. These games are never an easy game because you really want to play for your team. Sometimes that’s really good and sometimes it gets a little emotional. But we’ll hope that it’s good.”
Ryan Aber covers OU athletics for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Ryan? He can be reached at raber@oklahoman.com or on Twitter at @RyAber. Sign up for the OU Sooners newsletter to access more OU coverage. Support Ryan’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com or by using the link at the top of this page.
More: How did Javian McCollum win Bedlam for OU? With 'patented move' his old coach saw coming
No. 20 OU vs. No. 3 Texas
TIPOFF: 6 p.m. Wednesday at Lloyd Noble Center in Norman (ESPN+)
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU women's basketball looking to take lessons from 2023 loss to Texas
