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Aaliyah Chavez, Raegan Beers form a scary March Madness tandem for OU women's basketball
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- Aaliyah Chavez, Raegan Beers form a scary March Madness tandem for OU women's basketball
NORMAN — The Sooners , with their two distinct stars, can sometimes look like a team caught between eras.
You have Raegan Beers the senior and Aaliyah Chavez the freshman. One is a bruising big, the other an electric guard. Beers brings the physicality. Chavez supplies the flash. Beers is hyper efficient. Chavez is a heat check.
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The Beers era is almost over. The Chavez reign has only just begun.
But this being a bridge year, if you can even call it that, isn't a bad thing.
Because here the Sooners are, dancing into the Sweet 16 in large part thanks to the Chavez-Beers tandem.
The two of them tied for a team-high 18 points Sunday night as No. 4 seed OU beat No. 5 seed Michigan State 77-71 in the second round of the NCAA women's basketball tournament .
Each did it their own way.
More: Aaliyah Chavez enters first March Madness with OU basketball, but she's built for this
Beers, in her last game at Lloyd Noble Center, had a classic Beers line: 18 points (7 of 11) and 14 rebounds.
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"Her size is just a challenge," Michigan State coach Robyn Fralick said. "She's got great hands. She's a great rebounder, too. Just her ability to get them extra possessions outside of (her) scoring."
Chavez needed 17 shots to score her 18 points, but on a night when her 3-pointer wasn't falling, Chavez drained a clutch triple to give the Sooners a seven-point lead with 2:46 left. The freshman also had six assists, against only one turnover and five rebounds.
"She's such a unique player because she can get really hot," Fralick said. "I thought we actually did a good job on her, but she made a huge 3 near the end of the game … a really, really timely shot."
Beers and Chavez are individually brilliant, but over the course of the season, their at times divergent styles started to mesh.
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"It's fun to watch them really complement one another," OU coach Jennie Baranczyk said.
Chavez has learned to look Beers' way more often. The freshman guard is seeing the pass beyond the pass, getting the ball to power forward Sahara Williams, knowing that Williams will find Beers.
"That's probably happened in the last month or so, where she's really starting to understand what's happening for everybody," Baranczyk said of Chavez.
More: Who's in Sweet 16? Updated March Madness bracket, Women's NCAA Tournament schedule
Chavez and Beers, in most contexts, would be the focal point on opposing scouting reports. OU's opponents have to split time preparing for both.
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"I've really liked their two-player game," Baranczyk said. "I think it created a lot of 15-foot shots for Raegan, and she can shoot those, and obviously she did today."
Beers has been a rock for the Sooners these last two seasons after transferring in from Oregon State. She's averaged 16.5 points and 9.8 rebounds per game at OU. This season, she led the SEC in field goal percentage (61.6%)
"I love this place," Beers said. "I love these people. It was fun to end it in the LNC with this team."
But it's not over yet. The Sooners are headed to Sacramento, California, where they're likely to face No. 1 seed South Carolina — a team OU beat in SEC play. Beers had 18 and 14 in that game, just as she did Sunday night. Chavez had 26 points and eight assists.
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Maybe they can channel that magic again.
There's only this brief window for OU's stars to align.
Joe Mussatto is a sports columnist for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Joe? Email him at jmussatto@oklahoman.com . Support Joe's work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com .
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU women's basketball might be able to go on magical March Madness run
