No. 19/20 Sooners Look to Bounce Back Thursday

UTRGV

^19/20 Oklahoma

december 8 | 7 p.m. | NORMAN, OKLA.

THURSDAY'S GAME BASICS

No. 19/20 Oklahoma (5-2) continues its three-game homestand Thursday night against UT Rio Grande Valley (formerly UT Pan-American). Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. CT at Lloyd Noble Center. OU is looking to snap its two-game losing streak, its first since the 2014-15 season when the Sooners dropped three straight road games in non-conference play (Dec. 14-21). UTRGV is under the direction of fourth-year head coach Larry Tidwell.

ON THE AIR

Thursday's game will air on Fox Sports Oklahoma with Bob Carpenter, Dan Hughes and Megan McDonald announcing. Fans can also watch the game online through FoxSportsGo.com or the Fox Sports Go app. The contest will air on the Sooner Radio Network with Brian Brinkley calling the action.

TICKETS

Tickets are available for as low as $5 at the OU Athletics Ticket Office (800-456-4668) and online here. Fans can use the promo code “5BUCKS” to purchase $5 tickets for all December home games.

Lloyd Noble Center's north and east ticket windows will open at 5:30 p.m. CT on Thursday. OU students will be admitted free with a valid school I.D.

FIVE THINGS TO KNOW

• Thursday's game marks the fifth all-time meeting against UT Rio Grande Valley (formerly UT Pan-American) and the first since Nov. 26, 2010 (OU won 116-66). OU has won all four meetings against the Vaqueros (each played in Norman) by an average margin of 48.0 points per victory.

• Oklahoma ranks second in the Big 12 with a .720 free throw percentage this season. In its five wins, OU is shooting .750 (81-of-108) from the charity stripe and the Sooners are averaging 16.2 made free throws in their five victories, doubling their opponents 7.2 makes at the foul line. Five OU players are shooting .750 or better at the free throw line through seven games. In its last two contests, OU has made just 7.0 free throws a game.

• The Sooners are one of just five teams in Division I to rank in the top 25 in defensive rebounds and blocked shots per game (Baylor, George Washington, Harvard and West Virginia). OU ranks 18th in blocked shots per contest and 24th in defensive rebounds per game. Vionise Pierre-Louis and Nancy Mulkey are tied for ninth in the Big 12 with 1.6 blocks per game.

• Pierre-Louis left Sunday's game versus Oral Roberts due to injury, playing just four minutes. Pierre-Louis has been a consistent cog in OU's offense to start the year, averaging 10.3 points and 9.4 rebounds a game, while posting a .628 shooting percentage in 19.6 minutes a contest.

• Freshman guard Chelsea Dungee has made an early impact for the Sooners during her freshman season. The Sapulpa, Okla., native is averaging 11.0 points per game over the last three contests. Her .462 3-point (6-for-13) and .923 (12-for-13) free throw percentage rank as tops on the team. She has finished with double-digit scoring performances in each of the last three games, including a season-high 12 points on the road at Kentucky.

GAME SEVEN RECAP: ORAL ROBERTS

• No. 12/12 Oklahoma fell, 74-67, to Oral Roberts on Sunday at Lloyd Noble Center. OU jumped out to a 42-31 halftime lead by shooting 50 percent from the floor in the first two quarters.

• The Sooners led by as many as 17 points in the third quarter, but Oral Roberts held OU's offense in check in the second half as the Golden Eagles outscored the Sooners, 43-25. The Golden Eagles held OU scoreless for nearly the final six minutes, using an 18-0 run in the fourth quarter to grab the lead.

• Redshirt senior guard Peyton Little led the Sooners in scoring with 12 points on 4-of-14 shooting while junior center McKenna Treece led OU in rebounding with 11 boards in a career-high 24 minutes played off the bench.

• Senior guard Gioya Carter contributed 11 points and added in four rebounds, while freshman Chelsea Dungee was in double figures for the third straight game, scoring 11 on 3-of-5 shooting along with two treys. T'ona Edwards finished with a season-best 10 points in the first half and tallied three assists.

PREVIEWING UTRGV

• UT Rio Grande Valley (formerly known as UT Pan-American) improved to 5-3 this season with a 68-65 win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Sunday. UTRGV, who is 2-2 on the road this season, averages 66.2 points per game on a .381 field goal, .283 3-point and .717 free throw shooting. Opponents are averaging 64.0 points per game against the Vaqueros.

• Shawnte' Goff, UTRGV's all-time leader scorer, leads the Vaqueros with a 16.0 scoring average through eight games. Goff became the program's all-time leading scorer on Nov. 19, scoring 13 points in a loss at Abilene Christian. The senior needs just two more field goals to become UTRGV's all-time leader in career field goals made. She was named the WAC Preseason Player of the Year and earned All-WAC First Team honors a year ago.

• Senior forward Mary Savoy ranks second on the team in scoring with 9.0 points per game off the bench, while averaging 5.4 rebounds a contest. Idil Türk and Bernesha Peters are both averaging 7.1 points per game this season for the Vaqueros. Peters finished with 16 points and three steals in UTRGV's win over TAMUCC on Sunday.

• UTRGV is under the direction of four-year head coach Larry Tidwell, who has a 57-48 record during his tenure. Tidwell previously served as the head coach at Lamar for six seasons before taking the helm at UTRGV prior to the 2013-14 season. He has a career record of 185-114 in 10 seasons as a collegiate head coach.

Senior guard Gioya Carter is averaging 14.5 points over the last two games. She is second on the team with an 11.2 scoring average this season.

QUICK HITS

• The Sooners are 9-2 against current members of the Western Athletic Conference.

• Peyton Little eclipsed the 1,000-point scoring mark for her collegiate career in the first quarter at Kentucky on Dec. 1. Little scored 156 (4.5 ppg) during her freshman season at Texas A&M before transferring to Oklahoma. Since arriving in Norman, Little has scored 871 points, averaging 11.9 per game as a Sooner. She needs 129 points to become the 32nd Sooner to score 1,000 points at Oklahoma.

• In all five wins, OU has attempted more free throws than its opponents and the Sooners have averaged 16.2 made free throws in each victory. OU ranks second in the Big 12 with a .720 free throw percentage.

• The Sooners have been ranked in the AP Poll for 24 consecutive weeks (tied for the 12th-longest active streak in the country). OU has been ranked in the AP poll 247 times under Sherri Coale.

• OU finished November with a 5-0 record, the first undefeated month for the Sooners since November 2010. The Sooners have finished a month undefeated 11 times during the Coale era.

• Oklahoma's non-conference schedule includes matchups against four NCAA Tournament teams from last season (BYU, Colorado State, Kentucky and South Dakota State). The Sooners will play nine of their 14 non-conference matchups at Lloyd Noble Center. OU's first six opponents each won at least 20 games a year ago.

• The Sooners boast one of the nation's most experienced rosters with six seniors on their squad, the most for an OU team since the 2006-07 season. It marks the third time for the Sooners to have more than five seniors on their roster and on the previous two occasions, OU has claimed the Big 12 regular season title (2002 and 2007).

• OU is 77-5 all-time at home against unranked non-conference opponents during the Coale era.

• Over the last 10 seasons, the Sooners rank second in the Big 12 in overall wins (217) and conference victories (144). OU is the only team in the Big 12 to make every NCAA Tournament since 2000.

UP NEXT

Oklahoma wraps up its non-conference home slate on Sunday at 2 p.m. CT against the Tulsa Golden Hurricane inside Lloyd Noble Center. The Sooners have won four straight versus Tulsa and 10 out of the 11 meetings in Norman. Sunday's game will be televised on Fox Sports Oklahoma.

For more information on Oklahoma women's basketball, follow the Sooners on Twitter (@OU_WBBall) or like Oklahoma Sooners Women's Basketball on Facebook.