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January 8, 2013 | Record: 12-2 (2-0 Big 12) | Gameday Central | Stats

Mmm Mmm Good

When the Sooners lost guards Maddie Manning and Whitney Hand, who combined for 17 points per game before injuries ended their seasons, it seemed that OU's offensive firepower might take a drastic hit. But, instead of suffering with depth issues, Oklahoma has gone to its well.

Sharane Campbell earned a share of the Big 12 Player of the Week vote for the conference's opening week after averaging 20.5 points and 7.0 rebounds in Oklahoma's wins over West Virginia and Texas. Campbell totaled a then-season-high 17 points and career-best 12 rebounds versus the Mountaineers and then set a career high with 24 points against the Longhorns.

"Sharane came back from holiday break really determined," head coach Sherri Coale said. "It was like she had settled herself and had spent some time thinking about exactly the ways in which she could impact our team."

The sophomore entered Winter Break with a personal mission to improve her ball-handling skills and communication, and the work has translated into a starting role and raised confidence.

This paired with the aggressive style that helped her claim the Big 12 Sixth Man Award as a freshman has resulted in a resurgence of the Sooners' transition offense and nationally-ranked defense.

Campbell has been drawing the tougher defensive assignments in recent games. Her role as the defensive stopper has helped her train her focus on taking each possession one at a time. In the three games since OU's return form the holidays, Campbell is OU's second-leading scorer, rebounder, shot blocker and assists leader -- the spots formerly occupied by Hand.

"It makes me want to shoot more," Campbell said. "My shot is getting better and I'm starting to make it. It gives me confidence and lets me know I need to work hard on other things."

January's Hot Start

Oklahoma's 2-0 start to the Big 12 season has the Sooners' confidence jumping by leaps and bounds. It was just its third undefeated opening week in league play in the last six seasons.
Oklahoma rallied to beat West Virginia, 71-68, in the final minutes after tying the game eight times without getting the lead. OU then jumped to an 18-point advantage in the second half at Texas in a 78-70 victory to take a game from the Longhorns in Austin for the fifth time in the last six seasons.

"Early on, I think any time you can stack a couple wins together, it helps you get off on solid footing," Coale said. "Going on the road and playing well, particularly shooting well, with young teams they start to think 'Oh yeah, this is what we do. We shoot it well on the road.'"

Whereas Oklahoma commonly struggled away from home in recent seasons, the road victory at Texas continued a trend of dominating performances away from the Lloyd Noble Center.

In its five games at away or neutral sites, Oklahoma averages a 17.0-point margin of victory, 48 percent field goal shooting and 43 percent 3-point shooting. However, another always challenging Big 12 road game comes Wednesday at TCU, where the Sooners have not won in their last two visits.

"It's a momentum thing," junior guard Morgan Hook said. "The more wins we have starting the season, the better off we are down the stretch because there are upsets and things like that. We have to steal the ones on the away trips."

Campus Dive

Last Thursday, the Sooners took their second Campus Dive, their explorations of OU's on-campus treasures, touring the History of Science Collections on the fifth floor of the Bizzell Memorial Library under the guidance of the recently-retired Dr. Sul H. Lee, who served as Dean of the OU Library for 34 years, and librarian Dr. JoAnn Palmeri. Click here for photos from the visit.

OU's History of Science Collections is one of the premier research collections in its field. Holdings of nearly 100,000 volumes from every field and subject area of science, technology and medicine range chronologically from Hrabanus Maurus, Opus de universo (1467) to current publications in the history of science. The Galileo collection includes all 12 first editions of Galileo, four of which contain his own handwriting.

It also includes the first English translation of Galileo, and many other first and later editions of the works of Galileo and his immediate contemporaries in the Accademia dei Lincei. The Darwin collection consists of all of Darwin's works in their first editions, and several autograph letters. In addition, it includes hundreds of subsequent editions and translations (for example, the Descent of Man in Yiddish, 1928).

UP NEXT
The Sooners start the second week of Big 12 Conference games:

Date	Opponent	Time
1/9	at TCU	7 p.m.
1/12	vs. Texas Tech	7 p.m.

Tickets | Full Schedule

MOST RECENTLY
The Sooners opened conference play with two thrilling wins against the Mountaineers and Longhorns.

Opponent	W/L	Score
West Virginia	W	71-68
Texas	W	78-70

TCU PREVIEW
Head coach Sherri Coale talks about OU's Wednesday evening contest at TCU in Fort Worth, a place where the Sooners haven't won since 2003:

Coale Previews TCU Trip

QUOTABLE
Head Coach Sherri Coale
"We are going to have to play toward our strengths. It's good to see these guys getting confidence though. I think that's what happened midway through the second half. They forgot about everything and just trusted each other. And it was pretty to watch and rewarding as a coach to watch them go."

Junior G Aaryn Ellenberg
"It was a great all around. We all contributed in different ways, even guys that came off the bench like Portia. We talked about that in the locker room. She didn't play that many minutes, but when she came in, she made a difference. I think all around everybody did what they needed to do to get that done."

Soph. G Sharane Campbell
"At the beginning of the second half, I was a little worried about the fouls. Whitney came up to me and told me I needed to get back on it, I needed to step up, I needed to not play afraid, and that's when I was like 'OK, yeah. It's time for me to step back up and do what I have to do.'"

TEAM NOTES

Sharane Campbell was named the Big 12 Player of the Week following a 17-point, 12-rebound performance against West Virginia and scoring a career-high 24 points at Texas.

Oklahoma is 12-0 when it holds its opponent to a field goal percentage of 40 percent of lower.

The Sooners own a 19.2-point margin of victory in their three true road games played in 2012-13 and have made 26 of their 50 (52 percent) 3-point attempts in those games.

With 117 3-pointers made through 14 games played, Oklahoma is on pace to match its program record for makes by the end of its regular season. OU made 251 in 35 games in 2010-11.

2012-13 Game Notes

INDIVIDUAL NOTES
Junior G Aaryn Ellenberg
Ellenberg is nine points shy of rising to 14th (1,353 points by Tami Rogers, 1987-90) on OU's all-time scoring list. Ellenberg began the season at No. 26 and has improved 11 spots in 14 games.

Junior C Nicole Griffin
Griffin's two blocks versus Texas moved her into a tie for fifth on OU's career blocks list. She and Angi Guffy (1992-95) are even with 99 career blocks.

Senior F Joanna McFarland
McFarland has reached double-digit rebounding totals in seven of her last eight games. Since returning to the starting lineup five games ago, McFarland has averaged 8.8 points and 9.8 boards.

WRITE SPACE AND TIME
Join head coach Sherri Coale, who shares her thoughts in her own blog hosted on SoonerSports.com, providing the inside view of her program:

Coach Coale's Journal

CAMPUS DIVE PHOTOS
Check out a photo gallery from OU's visit to the History of Science Collections on the fifth floor of the Bizzell Memorial Library:

Library Visit Photo Gallery