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OU Basketball: Payton Verhulst Powers Oklahoma Past Iowa State

Sooners win their eighth straight in a comfortable Big 12 road win, this time fueled by Verhulst's offensive and defensive proficiency.

John E. Hoover

OU Basketball: Payton Verhulst Powers Oklahoma Past Iowa State
OU Basketball: Payton Verhulst Powers Oklahoma Past Iowa State /

Payton Verhulst hit three 3-pointers in the first quarter and powered No. 24-ranked Oklahoma to an early lead that stood up throughout a 86-72 victory at Iowa State on Saturday night.

OU stayed atop the Big 12 Conference standings with its eighth consecutive win and has now prevailed in 11 of its last 12 to improve to 16-6 overall and 11-1 in league play.

Iowa State fell to 13-9 and 7-5.

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Verhulst, a former Louisville transfer and McDonald’s All-American from De Soto, KS, got going early from distance and finished 6-for-11 from 3 for 25 points, her best showing int the scoring column since posting a season-high 32 points in a win over Oral Roberts back on Nov. 12. She was 8-of-17 from the field overall.

Verhulst also had a game-high four steals.

She stretched the Cyclones defense with three bombs in the first period, one from the right wing and two from out front, including a deep one, to help the Sooners build a 27-19 lead.

Her fourth 3 came in the fourth quarter and gave OU an 80-63 lead.

Meanwhile, senior Skylar Vann, who came in with a team-high 15.9 points and 7.0 rebounds per game, scored six points in the first quarter but shot just 1-of-4 in the second and third quarters before finding her scoring touch again in the fourth and finishing with 12 points as OU pulled away.

Nevaeh Tot scored 10 for OU, including a couple of 3s, to go with a game-high nine assists (with just one turnover) and three steals.

Oklahoma scored 21 points off 20 Iowa State turnovers, which included 12 OU steals.

OU also had assists on 25 of its 33 field goals.

The Sooners are back home next week for a 6 p.m. game Tuesday against Baylor.

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.