OU Basketball: Three Takeaways From No. 9 Oklahoma's Chaotic Win Over No. 15 Tennessee

The Sooners led by as many as 19 points on Sunday but had to survive a late 3-point attempt to escape Tennessee with the win.

Oklahoma's Sahara Williams / Saul Young/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Oklahoma rebounded from a frustrating outing against Texas by notching the program’s first road win in SEC play. 

The No. 9-ranked Sooners took down No. 15 Tennessee 87-86 on Sunday at the Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville. 

The loss was the first of the season for the Lady Vols, who fell to 13-1 overall and 1-1 in the SEC and OU moved to 13-2 overall and 1-1 in league play with the victory. 

Jennie Baranczyk’s team fell behind 4-0, but after Payton Verhulst hit a 3-pointer to go up 5-4, the Sooners never trailed the rest of the way. 

Despite trailing by 19 midway through the third quarter, Tennessee cut the deficit to one with 40 seconds left. 

Oklahoma then turned the ball over via a shot clock violation with 9.7 seconds left, giving Tennessee a chance to steal the win. 

Sara Puckett missed a wide open 3 from the front of the hoop though, and the Sooners pulled down the rebound to escape with the win.

OU overcame more turnover issues to get back in the win column, which is something Baranczyk will look to correct as her team takes on Mississippi State in Starkville, MS, on Thursday at 6:30 p.m.

Here are three takeaways from the win:

Spread the Love 

While Payton Verhulst was the central hub for everything good offensively against Texas, the Sooners got key contributions from all over the roster to hand Tennessee its first loss of the year. 

Four different Sooners scored more than 10 points, a result of OU’s ability to break the Lady Vols’ full-court press. 

Oklahoma was often able to loft the ball beyond the line of Tennessee defenders, allowing anyone to get involved with easy lay-ups for quick points. 

Reyna Scott scored six first half points and Beatrice Culliton added four in the first 20 minutes to help support Verhulst, Raegan Beers, Liz Scott and Skylar Vann.

Then as the game settled a bit more in the second half, the usual names took over. 

Lexy Keys hit a pair of triples right out of halftime to help OU win the third quarter 29-20 and open up a double-digit lead. 

Verhulst led OU with 16 points, Beers finished with 13 points and eight rebounds, and both Liz and Reyna Scott ended with 11 apiece. 

Defend the Arc 

Kim Caldwell’s style she’s implementing at Tennessee calls for 3’s. Lots of them. 

The Lady Vols lead the country, averaging 36.5 attempts from deep each game, and they knock down 33.5 percent of those attempts each contest. 

Considering how Oklahoma’s turnover issues continued on Sunday (more on that in a minute), things could have quickly gotten out of hand for OU in Knoxville. 

But the Sooners did a nice job for the most part of sticking with Tennessee’s 3-point shooters to at least make life difficult. 

The Lady Vols hit 10-of-36 attempts, with a handful of those coming late, and then OU kept Tennessee from tracking down a ton of long rebounds. 

Baranczyk’s Sooners won the battle on the boards 42-33 and hit eight 3-pointers of their own to end the Vols’ perfect start to the year.

Still Far Too Sloppy

Thursday, OU tied its season-high in turnovers with 27 miscues against Texas. 

The Sooners topped that total on Sunday. 

Tennesse turned Oklahoma over 31 times, which led to 30 points.

Some of those mistakes came as result of the press, but there were still too many errant passes that were unforced. 

The big difference on Sunday was OU hitting more than the two 3-pointers it connected on against Texas, and the Sooners made 11 free throws to Tennessee’s two makes from the line. 

Oklahoma was able to overcome the turnover issues to get to .500 in SEC play, but those numbers will have to come down significantly to have the year that Baranczyk believes her team is capable of.