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Skylar Vann gets 'sweet' birthday win as OU women's basketball defeats Kansas
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- Skylar Vann gets 'sweet' birthday win as OU women's basketball defeats Kansas
NORMAN — Most people don't spend their birthday getting yelled at.
But that's how Skylar Vann celebrated turning 22 on Saturday as OU squeezed past Kansas with a 60-55 home win . It wasn't a pretty showing by the Sooners, who scored their third-lowest point total of the season, and Vann found herself on the receiving end of head coach Jennie Baranczyk's wrath on a few occasions.
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Vann welcomed the wakeup call. After scoring 12 points in the first half, the senior forward went scoreless in the third quarter due to the suffocating defense of five-star Kansas freshman S'Mya Nichols.
"Jennie did have to check me a few times today," Vann said with a laugh. "I'm not even gonna lie. I did get in my head a little bit."
"But she's 22 now, so it's OK," Baranczyk joked.
The birthday bashing proved to be beneficial for Vann, who snapped out of her slump in the fourth quarter.
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She scored nine points on 3-for-5 shooting from the floor. And after getting checked by Baranczyk earlier in the game, Vann received a confidence booster from her head coach and her teammates at the perfect time.
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OU held onto a two-point lead with 1:50 left in the game when Baranczyk drew up a play during a timeout. It was designed for Vann, who was tasked with getting to the rim for a layup.
"I was losing confidence in myself a little bit in this game," Vann said. "Especially in that second half when I kind of went through a little drought. But people were just feeding into (me). ... Everybody was like, 'We're giving it to you. You just go up and don't even think about it.'"
The play worked to perfection.
Vann gathered a pass at the free throw line and bulldozed Nichols on her way to the rim. All the Kansas guard could do was backtrack with her hands in the air as she watched Vann bank in the layup.
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The big-time bucket proved to be the dagger for OU (13-6, 7-1 Big 12), and Vann secured her birthday victory. She finished tied for a game-high 21 points to go along with seven rebounds and a block.
"It does make it sweet," Vann said when asked about winning on her birthday. "Having to celebrate this moment with my teammates, that's always the best part. ... I celebrated my birthday, but let's also celebrate this win."
Here are three takeaways from the win:
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Sooners struggle to dial it in from deep
Aubrey Joens' confidence never wavered.
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After missing a fastbreak 3-pointer a few possessions earlier, the senior guard caught a pass on the wing late in the first quarter and didn't hesitate to let it fly.
She did so for good reason. While OU entered Saturday with the third-lowest team 3-point percentage (29.7%) in the Big 12, Joens is usually a source of spacing.
But Joens' quick-trigger 3-pointer missed the mark, as did OU's other eight tries in the opening quarter. Four of those misses came from Joens.
OU shot a healthy 6 for 11 (54.5%) from inside the arc. Still, its myriad of misses from deep allowed Kansas to take a 16-14 lead into the second quarter.
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"Some of them, we're going to take over and over," Baranczyk said of her team's 3-point shooting. "Aubrey Joens, I don't care that she goes 0 for 4. I need her to shoot those. ... The ones I feel that we kind of settled for are the ones where we could maybe get a little bit more movement beforehand."
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Second chances save the Sooners
Lexy Keys built up a full head of steam as she drove to the rim for a layup attempt early in the third quarter.
The senior guard gathered so much momentum that it carried her out of bounds as the ball rimmed out. But Keys didn't stay out of the action for too long.
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Keys immediately ran back into the paint and tipped the loose ball to Sahara Williams, who finished the chip shot.
Plays like that saved OU, which struggled to put the ball through the hoop all night. The Sooners recorded 14 offensive rebounds and converted them into 11 second-chance points.
The extra opportunities are routine for OU. It entered Saturday with an average of 14.6 offensive rebounds per game, which ranked second in the Big 12.
"I love the offensive rebounds," Baranczyk said. "I think our next step is to actually convert a little bit more on some of those second chances because I think we're getting some of them. And now we've got to convert a little bit more."
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Oklahoma guard Lexy Keys (15) celebrates after a 3-point play in the first quarter during an NCAA basketball game between University of Oklahoma (OU) and University of Kansas (KU) at the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Okla., on Saturday, Jan. 27, 2024.
A win is a win for the Sooners
The Sooners played far from a perfect game.
They went 23 for 71 from the floor (32.4%). They went 4 for 21 from deep (19%). They only scored 60 points.
But it's a win nonetheless for the Sooners, who remain in the hunt for the top spot in the Big 12 standings.
OU can get even closer to that goal when it hosts fourth-ranked Kansas State (20-1, 9-0 Big 12) at 6 p.m. Wednesday. The Wildcats sit atop the conference standings.
"I think this is one of those games that just shows how tough this league is," Baranczyk said. "I'm really proud of the way that we stuck in it. Not necessarily the energy we started with and not necessarily, obviously, our offensive production.
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"When push came to shove in the fourth quarter, we had to make some plays. And I feel like we were able to do that."
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU women's basketball: Skylar Vann gets birthday win over Kansas
