Sooners Open Season on Road at South Dakota

(RV) Oklahoma

(RV) South Dakota

Tuesday, Nov. 9 / 7 p.m. CT / Sanford Coyote Sports Center / Vermillion, S.D.

NORMAN – The Oklahoma women's basketball team is set to open its 2021-22 season and the Jennie Baranczyk era Tuesday when it travels to Vermillion, S.D., for a showdown with defending Summit League championship South Dakota. The contest between the two teams that are receiving votes in the AP Poll tips off at 7 p.m. CT.

ON THE AIR

Tuesday's game will be available on ESPN+ with Jay Eisen and David Brown on the call.

The contest will air on the Sooner Radio Network (KOKC 1420 AM in Oklahoma City; KREF 99.3 FM/1400 AM in Norman; Varsity radio App) with Chris Plank calling the action.

FIVE THINGS TO KNOW

Oklahoma opens its season on the road at (RV) South Dakota in Vermillion on Tuesday, Nov. 9. The Sooners won last year's contest between the two teams, 80-73, in Norman. OU is 31-15 all-time in season openers and hasn't opened on the road since the 2012-13 season when it started the campaign with a 69-48 win at Creighton.
The Sooners enter the contest under new head coach Jennie Baranczyk, who arrives in Norman after nine years at Drake where she led the Bulldogs to five MVC titles and six postseasons, including three NCAA Tournaments. Her teams ranked inside the nation's top 10 in scoring offense in five of the last six seasons.
Baranczyk will lead a roster that has combined for 421 career games played and boasts three All-Big 12 performers in Ana Llanusa, Taylor Robertson and Madi Williams. The Sooners return six players from the 2021-21 season, and add Llanusa and Nydia Lampkin who return to the team after missing last season. Those eight, matched with transfers Jordan Moser (Loyola Chicago) and Kennady Tucker (North Carolina), are paired with four freshmen to complete OU's 14-player roster.
The Sooners are led by a trio of seniors in Llanusa, Robertson and Williams - all who have scored over 1,000 points in their OU careers. Oklahoma is the only school in the Big 12 Conference with three 1,000-point scorers. Llanusa returns to the roster after missing the 2020-21 season due to injury and is slated to make her first appearance at the Lloyd Noble Center since March 7, 2020 (603 days ago) when OU hosted Texas Tech in the final game of the 2019-20 season. A second team All-Big 12 honoree as a junior, the Choctaw, Okla., product averages 15.0 points per game over 73 career games. Robertson, one of the most prolific shooters in NCAA history and preseason All-Big 12 selection, enters her senior season as the country's active leader in 3-pointers per game (3.83), as her 43.9 percent clip also leads the nation. She was the first player in Big 12 history to hit 100 or more 3s in back-to-back seasons as a freshman and sophomore and became the third player in the OU annals to reach 1,000 points in two seasons or fewer, joining all-time leading scorers Courtney Paris and Aaryn Ellenberg in that elite group. Williams enters the 2021-22 season as a unanimous All-Big 12 preseason selection after leading the Sooners in points (20.0) and rebounds (5.1) per game last year. The senior was a unanimous All-Big 12 first teamer as a junior and owns OU's single-game scoring record, which she set on Jan. 3, 2021 by scoring 45 vs. West Virginia. She hit the 1,000-point mark at Baylor on Jan. 23, 2021.
Oklahoma defeated the Coyotes in Norman last season, 80-73, powered by Taylor Robertson's 27 points. The Coyotes are led by Dawn Plitzuweit (129-30 at USD) who is entering her sixth season at the helm of the South Dakota program. Under Plitzuweit, USD has won two regular-season Summit League titles and back-to-back Summit League Tournament titles. The Coyotes will put a 20-game home winning streak on the line Tuesday when the Sooners come to Vermillion. South Dakota is 65-4 at home under Plitzuweit with its last home loss coming to No. 22 Missouri State on Nov. 25, 2019.

UP NEXT

Following Tuesday's contest, the Sooners return to Norman for back-to-back home games vs. Arkansas State and Central Arkansas. The Red Wolves come to the Lloyd Noble Center Friday, Nov. 12 for a 10:30 a.m. CT tip and the Bears are slated for a 6 p.m. tip Nov. 16.