#18 Sooners Ready For Road Test at No. 9 Baylor

¹⁸ Oklahoma

⁹Baylor

Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2022 / 7 p.m. CT / Waco, Texas / Ferrell Center

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NORMAN – No. 18 Oklahoma will look notch its second consecutive top-10 win on Wednesday when it travels to Waco, Texas, for a showdown with the No. 9 Baylor Bears. The Sooners (18-3, 7-2) sit atop the Big 12 standings with Baylor (15-4, 5-2) one game back and riding a five-game winning streak. The Sooners are winners of 16 of their last 18 games and are off to their best start in over a decade.

The game tips at 7 p.m. and will air on ESPN+ as the Sooners will try to make it two straight wins over Baylor for the first time in 12 years. It would be OU's first time winning two consecutive top-10 games since it beat No. 10 Oklahoma State and No. 8 Texas A&M in 2009-10.

THE STARTING FIVE

The Sooners enter Wednesday night's game ranked No. 18 in the AP Top 25 poll. Oklahoma made its first appearance in the poll in over four years on Jan. 3 when the voters tabbed it as the No. 23 team in the country. The Sooners are one of seven teams nationally with 12+ wins over top-100 teams in the NET.
Oklahoma's high-powered offensive attack is one of the best in the country and on pace to be the best in program history. OU's 85.9 points per game rank second nationally and first in the league as 20.0 assists per game power the attack. In addition, Taylor Robertson (17.8 PPG) and Madi Williams (18.4) make Oklahoma the only team in the Big 12 with two scorers that average 17.5 PPG or more.
A win would secure OU's second win over a top-10 opponent in a row, marking its first top-10 winning streak since knocking off No. 10 Oklahoma State and No. 8 Texas A&M in 2009-10. It would also be the Sooners' fourth win over a ranked opponent in 2021-22, a feat that OU has accomplished since 2011-12 when it won four such games.
The Sooners have used the Sooner Magic to comeback from double-digit deficits four times this season, including twice vs. ranked opponents. Down 19 points in the second half of the Utah game, the Sooners outscored the Utes 32-14 in the fourth quarter to secure the fourth-largest comeback in program history. That performance followed the win over then-No. 16 BYU when OU erased a 10-point deficit to knock off the Cougars in overtime. The Sooners came back from 16 points down at Kansas to post the fourth-largest comeback ever vs. a Big 12 opponent. Most recently, OU erased multiple 10-point deficits to knock off No. 14 Baylor in Norman on Jan. 12.
There are seven teams in the country with 12+ wins over top-100 NET opponents: No. 1 South Carolina, No. 2 Stanford, No. 3 NC State, No. 4 Louisville, No. 7 Tennessee, No. 18 Oklahoma and No. 20 Notre Dame. The Sooners rank fourth in the country with four NET top-25 wins with two of those coming vs. top-10 squads in BYU and Texas. Oklahoma is a perfect 18-0 vs. teams not ranked inside the NET's Top 25. Entering Wednesday night, the Sooners' RPI is No. 8 and first in the Big 12.

LAST TIME OUT

Madi Williams had 23 points and nine rebounds, and No. 18 Oklahoma defeated No. 9 Texas 65-63 on Saturday for its first win over a Top 10 team since 2017. Taylor Robertson added 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Sooners (18-3, 7-2), who remained tied with Iowa State for the Big 12 lead. With the score tied at 63-all, Oklahoma's Liz Scott was fouled on a made running bank shot with 4.1 seconds left in the fourth quarter. She missed the free throw, and Texas called timeout with 3.6 seconds to play.

SERIES HISTORY

Wednesday's showdown marks the 61st all-time between the Sooners and Bears with Baylor maintaining a 33-27 advantage. The Sooners won the most recent meeting, knocking of then-No. 14 Baylor 83-77 in Norman to snap a 13-game losing streak vs. the Bears. Oklahoma trails 16-10 in games played in Waco with its last victory coming on Jan. 28, 2009, when it defeated the then-No. 4 Bears 56-51. In that 2009 contest, the No. 2 Sooners got double-doubles from the Paris sisters with Courtney scoring the tiebreaking basket with 34 seconds left. Baranczyk is 1-0 all-time against Baylor.

UP NEXT

The Sooners return to Norman on Feb. 5 for their annual Play4Kay Pink game when they host West Virginia at Lloyd Noble Center at 3 p.m. Oklahoma won the matchup with the Mountaineers in Morgantown on Jan. 19, 88-76.