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University of Oklahoma Athletics
Freshman's Confidence A Beautiful Thing
January 21, 2012 | Women's Basketball
By Andrew Gilman / SoonerSports.com
NORMAN, Okla. -- Since Texas decided not to guard her, Sharane Campbell decided to shoot.
Nice decision.
Campbell, in just sixth Big 12 game of her career, scored 15 points -- 13 in the first half, providing quality minutes and some scoring, too, as the Sooners went on to a 73-67 victory over Texas in front of 7,688 at the Lloyd Noble Center.
Can't really blame the Longhorns. After all, Campbell is just a freshman. With spot-starting duty since the injury to Joanna McFarland. Meanwhile, Campbell had attempted just nine 3-pointers all season in 16 games, making just two. She came into the game against Texas averaging 7.7 points in 15 minutes per game.
But that changed Saturday. Campbell was 3-for-3 on 3-pointers in the first half, and only lost her perfect mark after making a desperation shot to beat a shot-clock buzzer.
"We weren't playing her as a 3-point shooter,'' Texas coach Gail Goestenkors said. "They played with a lot of emotion from players you don't normally see production from.''
Production certainly came from Campbell. She had five rebounds, a steal and an assist in 26 minutes and made 6-of-9 free throws.
"Today she was firing,'' OU coach Sherri Coale said. "It was a beautiful thing. I just liked her confidence. She didn't look like a freshman. She looked like she was coming to make an impact and that's what we needed her to do.''
The Sooners will be looking for that same kind of production for at least the next two weeks -- including Thursday's home game against Baylor -- as McFarland is out with a broken jaw. That means more responsibility from Campbell.
"I was nervous,'' Campbell said when Coale told her she was going to be starting. "I'm not past all things freshman. There's a lot I have to learn still. I catch myself looking two days ahead and have to be talked back into it and worry about just today.''
Today looked pretty good for OU as the Sooners improved to 12-5 overall and won for the third time in the past four Big 12 Conference games.
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