Sooners Set For Top-25 Showdown at Utah

SALT LAKE CITY – For the first time this season, No. 16 Oklahoma will take on a ranked opponent when it travels to Salt Lake City on Wednesday for a matchup with No. 25 Utah at the Huntsman Center. Tip is slated for 8 p.m. CT and the game will air on the Pac-12 Network with Krista Blunk and Mary Murphy on the call. Brian Brinkley will have the game on the Sooner Radio Network airing on 1520 AM in Oklahoma City.

Tuesday's contest marks the second of a four-game road swing that will pit Oklahoma against three NCAA Tournament teams from a season ago. The Sooners knocked off BYU, 77-66, in Provo on Tuesday afternoon and will follow Wednesday's contest vs. the Utes with a game on Sunday vs. UT Arlington and next Tuesday at Arkansas State.

THE STARTING FIVE

The Sooners are looking to notch their fifth win over a ranked opponent under Jennie Baranczyk as the second-year coach would reach five ranked victories faster than any coach in program history, doing so in just 38 games.
For the first time since 2017, Oklahoma appeared in the preseason AP Top 25 poll, debuting the season at No. 15. The Sooners were also ranked No. 16 in the USA TODAY WBCA Coaches Poll. In the latest AP Poll and WBCA Coaches Poll, Oklahoma was ranked No. 16.
Madi Williams has been one of the nation's best players through three games. The redshirt senior has posted back-to-back 20-point games and made 10 field goals in each of those contests. She needs just 88 points to became the eighth Sooner to score 2,000 career points as her teammate, Taylor Robertson, became the seventh to do so on Tuesday afternoon at BYU.
Oklahoma went 25-9 in year one of the Jennie Baranczyk era, making the program's first NCAA Tournament since 2017. The Sooners hosted the first two rounds of March Madness for the first time in a decade, falling to Notre Dame in the NCAA Second Round. The improvement for Oklahoma women's basketball from 12-12 in 2020-21 to 25-9 in Baranczyk's first year marked the first time in program history for a first-year coach to improve by 10+ wins in their first season. The 13-win jump is the second-largest overall in program history, trailing only Cathie Schweitzer, who increased the team's win total by 16 between the 1977 and 1978 seasons.
Once playing against each other, lethal 3-point shooters Taylor Robertson and Aubrey Joens have joined forces this season in Norman after Joens transferred to Oklahoma from Iowa State. The two have combined for 556 career treys, with Robertson sinking 453 and Joens hitting 103. Last season, the two sunk a combined 186 3-pointers, which was more than 234 Division I teams tallied as a whole.

SERIES HISTORY

Wednesday night's showdown is the sixth between the Sooners and Utes, with Oklahoma holding a 5-0 advantage all time. The Sooners defeated the Utes once in Salt Lake City in a 72-59 win in 2005. The Sooners' five-game win streak is tied for the program's fourth longest active streak. The two Power Five teams met at Lloyd Noble Center where Oklahoma erased a 19-point deficit to win 83-76.

LAST TIME OUT

It took a career night from Nevaeh Tot, Taylor Robertson scoring her 2,000th point and a 19-point second-half swing, but when the clock hit zero on Tuesday at the Marriott Center in Provo, Utah, No. 16 Oklahoma was still undefeated after knocking off BYU 77-66. In a rematch of last year's game that saw the Sooners erase a 10-point Cougar lead to win in overtime, Oklahoma (3-0) trailed by as many as 11 points in the first half but mounted the eighth double-digit comeback of the Jennie Baranczyk era to win by double digits. As a team, the Sooners' six turnovers were tied for the lowest for an OU team since the Big 12 formed, as OU had zero giveaways in the second half. Nevaeh Tot scored all 18 of her points in the second half, adding five rebounds and five assists with zero turnovers on her career night. Madi Williams, the Big 12's leading scorer, nearly maintained her season average of 22.0 points by pouring in 21 points on 10-of-16 shooting.

UP NEXT

The Sooners travel to Fort Worth, Texas, for a Sunday afternoon matchup vs. UT Arlington at 3:30 p.m. as part of the Maggie Dixon Classic. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.