Completed Event: Women's Basketball at #23 Alabama on February 15, 2026 , Win , 79, to, 71
Final
Women's Basketball
79
at #23 Alabama
71
University of Oklahoma Athletics
Little Apple Hosts Big Game for OU
February 19, 2008 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 19, 2008
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The game will broadcast on the Sooner Sports Network (KAUT-TV 43 in OKC, COX in Tulsa) with Toby Rowland on play-by-play and Patti Phillips on color analysis.
Listen on the radio (KOKC 1520 AM in Oklahoma City) as Brian Brinkley and Tara DeGiusti have the call.
PREVIEWING KANSAS STATE
No. 11 Oklahoma (18-5, 8-3) takes its 22-game winning streak against Big 12 North Division teams to Manhattan, Kan., Wednesday, Feb. 20, when the Sooners face No. 15 Kansas State (18-6, 10-1).
The Wildcats have been the surprise of the season. After finishing 11th in the conference standings with a 4-12 record last season, Kansas State has all but assured itself a first-round bye for the Big 12 Tournament.
K-State features three starters who average double-figure scoring and a fourth who is close.
Senior guard Kimberley Dietz leads the way with 15.4 points per game. Junior forward Marlies Gipson, the team's top rebounder, is KSU's second-leading scorer at 12.0 points per game.
Sophomore forward Ashley Sweat provides 10.7 points per game. Junior point guard Shalee Lehning is one of the Big 12's most efficient ballhandlers, averaging 6.3 assists and a 1.8 assist-to-turnover ratio.
KSU head coach Deb Patterson is 236-134 (.638) in her 12th season with Kansas State. Patterson is 4-10 versus Oklahoma.
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THE ALL-TIME SERIES
Oklahoma meets Kansas State for the 48th time in the series' history.
The series, which Oklahoma leads 24-23, is the tightest the Sooners have with any Big 12 opponent. There is no advantage in Manhattan, with both teams recording 10 wins.
The first meeting in 1976 was also the most decided with K-State cruising to a 90-27 victory.
Recently, Oklahoma has captured the last four meeting by an average margin of victory of 15.5 points.
OU head coach Sherri Coale is 10-4 versus the Wildcats, including a 4-1 record in Manhattan.
THE CIRCUS GOES TO MANHATTAN
When Connecticut visited Norman, Okla., to play the Sooners during the 1999-2000 season, a then-record crowd of 10,713 attended the game at the Lloyd Noble Center.
OU head coach Sherri Coale likened the experience to "the circus coming to town."
It seems that Oklahoma now has its own three rings.
A visit by the Sooners in 2007-08 boosts its opponent's attendance by 58 percent over its season average. Included in those figures are the largest attended games this season at Tulsa, Oklahoma State, Texas and Baylor and the largest non-conference draw at Michigan State.
PARIS WONDERFUL IN FEBRUARY
Tournament time must be near because the Paris twins have turned it on. In five February games the duo of Ashley and Courtney Paris has averaged 36.8 points and 23.4 rebounds.
Ashley Paris is contributing 13.6 points and 9.2 rebounds per game. She is shooting 54.4 percent from the field and has two of her nine career double-doubles this month.
Courtney Paris averages 23.2 points and 14.2 rebounds while shooting 66.7 percent.
AMANDA THOMPSON SOONER OF THE MONTH
Amanda Thompson was named the Oklahoma Athletics Department's Sooner of the Month for February. To qualify a student-athlete must be in good academic standing, be a member of an active sport and participate in community service events. Thompson has started all 20 games for the Sooners this season, averaging 10 points and seven rebounds.
ASHLEY PARIS NAMED ACADEMIC ALL-DISTRICT
Ashley Paris, a journalism major, was named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District 6 First Team this week. She will now be eligible for Academic All-America consideration. To qualify, canididates must have a 3.20 cumulative GPA or better and at least one year of academic residency.
Read more...
KAY YOW/WBCA CANCER FUND AUCTION
Fans can bid on several items, including authentic equipment and apparel, that were used in OU's "Pack the Place Pink Night" on Tuesday, Feb. 12, when the Sooners defeated Texas A&M during the WBCA's "Think Pink" Week.
Proceeds from the auction will be donated to the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund to promote breast cancer research and awareness. Items can be bid online at SoonerSports.com. Click here...
COALE'S 250TH VICTORY
Sherri Coale earned her 250th victory in her 12th year as the head coach of the Oklahoma Sooners. The Sooners defeated Texas A&M, 68-56, on Tuesday, Feb. 12, for the milestone win. Coale's is OU's all-time leader in coaching victories and winning percentage.
1,000TH GAME IN SOONER HISTORY
Oklahoma started its women's basketball program for the 1974-75 season and is approaching its 1,000th game. To date, the Sooners are nine games shy of 1,000 in program history. There are six games left in the regular season, which would mean that if OU failed to get a first-round bye for the Big 12 Tournament, the first opportunity to play 1,000 would be in the Championship Game. OU's all-time record is 574-417 (.579).
TOUGH FINISH
Oklahoma opened the season with the toughest schedule in the nation as its first three games -- Maryland, Tennessee and Arizona State -- featured Top 25 ranked opponents.
Starting with Texas A&M, the seven-game end to the Sooners' regular season features five opponents ranked in the Top 20 of both the media and coaches' polls.
ROBINSON ON PACE FOR 400
OU freshman guard Danielle Robinson is on pace to pass the 400-point scoring benchmark.
Only five other Sooners have achieved the feat in their freshman season. They include the program's No. 2, No. 3, No. 4 and No. 9 all-time scorers.
Should Robinson reach 400, she will be just the second guard in OU history (LaNeisha Caufield) to do so her freshman season.
BEDLAM SOLD OUTThe second edition of Oklahoma vs. Oklahoma women's basketball has sold out 30 days in advance. The game, scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 23, at the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Okla. should provide another 12,000-plus crowd for a game televised by Fox Sports Net.
Only restricted admission tickets remain. Restricted admission tickets are $8 and go on sale when doors open at 11:30 a.m. The ticket provides entry but does not guarantee a seat.
The matchup in Stillwater was attended by 13,611 -- the most to watch a women's basketball game in the state of Oklahoma.
Read more...
PARIS A NAISMITH SEMIFINALIST
Oklahoma's Courtney Paris remains one of 31 candidates in women's basketball vying for the 2008 Naismith Trophy, the Atlanta Tipoff Club announced Tuesday.
This is the third season Paris has been a Naismith semifinalist. The 2007 National Player of the Year was one of four finalists for the award as both a freshman and sophomore.
COALE "MOST FUN TO WATCH"
OU head coach Sherri Coale was recently voted by members of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) as the "Most Fun to Watch" head coach in the nation
RECAPPING BAYLOR
Angela Tisdale and Rachel Allison were among four players who scored in double figures for the Lady Bears (22-3, 10-2 Big 12), the only Big 12 team without a loss at home, as they defeated the Sooners 79-59 Sunday.
Oklahoma (18-5, 8-3) had a seven-game winning streak snapped.
Tisdale, the lone senior and only player remaining from Baylor's 2005 national championship team had 23 points. OU's Danielle Robinson had 12 points.
Courtney Paris and Ashley Paris both had double-doubles for the Sooners. Courtney had 21 points and 15 rebounds for her 84th consecutive double-double dating back to December 2005, and Ashley had 13 points and 14 rebounds.
It was only the second time Oklahoma lost when the pair of 6-foot-4 sisters accomplished that. The other was also against Baylor, 84-73 last month in a game that featured 15 lead changes and 10 ties in the Sooners' last loss.
Oklahoma had an early 6-2 lead after consecutive baskets by Robinson, a short jumper and then a breakaway layup after a turnover. The Lady Sooners led 8-7 when Courtney Paris missed a shot, eventually grabbed the rebound that rattled around several players and made a layup.
The Sooners then missed six straight shots, and Allison hit a go-ahead basket to start a 7-0 run. When Allison added a short jumper to make it 13-8, Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale called timeout. Before going to their huddle, Allison and Tisdale stopped and leaped, excitedly bumping into each other.
Baylor led by as many as 13 points before halftime, then had a 59-39 lead with 9:45 left after Morrow drove for a layup and then hit the free throw.
D-ROB, MOST VAUABLE FRESHMAN
Oklahoma's Danielle Robinson is one of only two freshmen (the other is UNC's Cetera DeGraffenreid) on Top 25 program to lead her team in assists and steals.
Robinson broke out in OU's win against Illinois, scoring eight of her 14 points during a 16-3 run in the second half, lifting the Sooners to a 70-57 lead with 3:36 remaining. Robinson also had back-to-back steals for layups in the stretch. The Sooners won, 77-67, as Robinson recorded a career high seven steals.
Of her 293 points scored this season, 76 (26 percent) have come by way of the fast break, including 10 of her 18 against Arizona State, six of 12 at Michigan State, eight of 20 versus South Carolina, six of 16 against Baylor and six of 12 versus Georgia.
The following is a look at the production of the nation's top freshmen guards (through Feb. 14).
| Production by the Nation's Top Freshmen | |||||
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Player |
Team |
GP |
Points |
Assists |
Steals |
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Angie Bjorklund |
Tennessee |
25 |
10.3 |
1.4 |
1.0 |
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Cetera DeGraffenreid |
North Carolina |
26 |
12.1 |
3.2 |
2.4 |
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Maya Moore |
Connecticut |
25 |
17.5 |
3.5 |
1.5 |
| Angela Puleo | Georgia |
26 |
8.6 |
2.8 |
1.2 |
| Danielle Robinson | Oklahoma |
23 |
12.7 |
4.3 |
2.4 |
| Alli Smalley | Auburn |
25 |
10.9 |
2.8 |
1.3 |
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Marah Strickland |
Maryland |
29 |
8.9 |
1.0 |
0.7 |
NO SOPHOMORE SLUMP FOR STEVENSON
Nyeshia Stevenson may not be starting, but she is one of the Sooners most important contributors.
After shooting 18.2 percent (2-of-11) from beyond the arc all last season, Stevenson is third in the Big 12 Conference in 3-point field goal percentage at 37 percent (24-of-65).
Stevenson broke out with a 4-for-4 3-point effort to spark the Sooners in a victory against Mississippi State and hasn't looked back since.
The Little Rock, Ark., native averages 8.1 points per game, fifth best on the team and most by a reserve. After starting the season opener, she has the OU's leading off-the-bench scorer in 18 of the last 22 games. Against Kansas, Stevenson led OU in scoring for the first time in her career with 15 points. She had a Big 12 high of 16 against Colorado.
TWICE AS NICE
The Paris twins have scored in double figures in the same game on 31 occasions, achieving the feat 16 times in 2007-08 after doing so 11 times last season. Since Courtney has scored in double figures in all of her 92 career games, the 3` occasions account for every double-figure game of Ashley's career. The duo has posted a double-double in the same game nine times (four as freshman and two as sophomores). OU is 27-4 when both Parises reach double figure scoring and 7-2 when both achieve a double-double.
BLOCK PARTY
Courtney Paris passed LaNae Jones (1993-96) as OU's blocks leader versus North Texas (Nov. 26). Paris entered the contest two blocks from Jones' record of 243 and counted five in the game to move past to 246.
Paris, who has OU's single-season record with 119 blocks as a freshman (and is No. 2 on the single-season list with 111 blocks as a sophomore) currently has 304 career blocks. She and Jones are the only two Sooners ever to record 100 blocks.
Paris passed Texas Tech's Cisti Greenwalt's (121 games, 2002-05) Big 12 career record of 300 blocks against Texas A&M on Feb. 12.
With a rate of 3.3 blocks per game and at least 33 games left in her career, Paris could break 400 career blocks by the time she leaves the college game.
TCU's Sandra Irvin (2002-05) has the NCAA record for career blocks with 480 in 127 games (3.78 per game).
CHAIRWOMAN OF THE BOARD
As a freshman, Courtney Paris set the NCAA single-season record with 539 rebounds and neared the mark as a sophomore with 526.
As a junior, Paris is averaging 15.1 boards, better than a 15.0 rate as a freshman.
Paris has owned OU's offensive rebounds record since last season and took over as the No. 1 rebounder in the Sooners' season opener. She passed Caton Hill for No. 1 on OU's defensive rebounding list with seven defensive boards versus Mississippi State (Nov. 27).
Paris currently has 1,410 career rebounds with 480 coming off the offensive glass and 930 defensively.
Against Georgia (Jan. 27) Paris passed Baylor's Sophia Young (1,316 during 2002-06) for the Big 12 Conference record for total rebounds.
Young owns the league's career offensive rebounds (489) record.
Paris claimed Young's Big 12 career record for defensive rebounds (827) with 10 in the game at Iowa State on Jan. 9.
No other Sooner in history has recorded 400 or more total rebounds in a single season.
A PERFECT '10'
Courtney Paris' 10 points against South Carolina (Dec. 30) was a career low, meaning she has never scored outside of double figures in her career. Only two other NCAA Division I players - LaToya Thomas, Mississippi State (1998-2002) and Chandi Jones, Houston (2000-04) - have finished their careers scoring in double figures in every game.
The most double-figure scoring games was accomplished by Sophia Young of Baylor (2003-06), who scored 10 or more points in 130 of her 139 career games.
Paris' 10 points were 10.5 percent of OU's total 95 against South Carolina, marking her lowest percent contribution since her career began. However, Paris did manage to grasp 24 rebounds, two from her personal best and the second most in a single game by a Division I player this season.
Paris' second lowest percentage contribution came one game before against Central Arkansas, when she provided 14 of the team's program record 121. Paris played only 22 minutes in the game.
Most Consecutive Double-Figure Scoring Games
125, LaToya Thomas, Mississippi State (1998-2002, 125 games)
Most Double-Figure Scoring Games
130, Sophia Young, Baylor (2003-06, 139 games)
Scored in Double Figures Every Game of Career
*130, Denise Curry, UCLA (1977-81)
125, LaToya Thomas, Mississippi State (1998-2002)
114, Chandi Jones, Houston (2000-04)
*Pre-NCAA record.
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SOONERS PICKED TO FINISH SECOND IN BIG 12 Texas A&M, the 2006-07 Big 12 co-champions with Oklahoma, received seven of 12 first-place votes to edge the Sooners, who received five first-place votes, in a split decision between the two teams. Coaches were not permitted to vote for their own team. PARIS PRESEASON BIG 12 PLAYER OF THE YEAR The 6-4 center, who averaged 23.5 points and 15.9 rebounds, was last season's Big 12 Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year after leading the Sooners to title defenses of the conference's regular season and tournament championships. Ashley Paris was an honorable mention for the All-Big 12 team. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
SOONERSPORTS.COM BLOG
Courtney has braces? Find out what prompted her sudden dental work by reading the OU Women's Basketball Blog on SoonerSports.com.
OU head coach Sherri Coale submits regular postings and this season several OU players will enter the cyberspace realm with their own unique contributions.
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