Balanced Offense Leads OU Past Mizzou

Sunday, March 1

Mizzou Arena • Columbia, Mo.

3 PM

University of Oklahoma

23-6,11-5SEC

Missouri

16-15,4-12SEC

Oklahoma

Missouri

March 01, 2026 | Women's Basketball

Box Score OU 84, Missouri 78 - Final

By: OU Athletics Communications

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Raegen Beers had 23 points and nine rebounds, Aaliyah Chavez scored 18 and No. 7 Oklahoma beat Missouri 84-78 on Sunday.

Payton Verhulst added 16 points and a season-best 12 rebounds for the Sooners (23-6, 11-5 Southeastern Conference), who have won 28 straight games against unranked opponents dating to last season. Sahara Williams had 13 points and nine boards.

Shannon Dowell scored a season-best 33 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for Missouri (16-15, 4-12), which has lost six in a row. Grace Slaughter added 15 points.

Oklahoma shot 42.1% from the field but outrebounded Missouri 54-35 and converted 20 offensive rebounds into 19 second-chance points.

Chloe Sotel hit a 3-pointer with 6:26 remaining in the third quarter to cut Missouri's deficit to 46-43, but Oklahoma responded with a 14-0 run over the next four minutes to pull away.

Oklahoma led 25-16 after the first quarter, but Missouri trimmed it to 40-34 at halftime thanks to five Sooners turnovers.

UP NEXT

Oklahoma will be the No. 5 seed in the SEC Tournament in Greenville, South Carolina. The Sooners play Thursday.

POSTGAME NOTES

• No. 7 Oklahoma (23-6, 11-5) defeated Missouri, 84-78, on the road Sunday to close the regular season with its sixth straight win. The Sooners will be the No. 5 seed at this week's SEC Tournament, opening play on Thursday when they'll face the winner of 12^th-seeded Florida vs. 13^th-seeded Mississippi State at 12:30 p.m. CT on SEC Network.

• Before Sunday's game, Oklahoma was announced as the No. 12 team in the country in the NCAA selection committee's final in-season top-16 team reveal, meaning that if the NCAA began today, the Sooners would be a No. 3 seed and host first- and second-round games at the Lloyd Noble Center for the second consecutive season.

• The Sooners were picked fifth in the preseason SEC media poll, marking the 12^th time in 14 seasons as a head coach that a Jennie Baranczyk team has met or exceeded preseason conference expectations, including all five seasons at Oklahoma.

• The win over the unranked Tigers was Oklahoma's 28^th straight win against unranked opponents. The Sooners are now 17-0 against teams outside of the AP Top 25 in 2025-26 and their last loss to a unranked foe came at (RV) Mississippi State on Jan. 9, 2025. The win was a Quad 3 win for OU, who has not lost a Quad 2-4 game since the women's quadrant system was adopted before last season (36 straight wins).

• Raegan Beers finished with team-high 23 points on 11-of-17 shooting and grabbed nine rebounds and two assists. The center has posted nine 20-point games this season.

• Seven-time SEC freshman of the week Aaliyah Chavez scored 18 points, added seven rebounds and three assists. Chavez closes the regular season as the league's freshman leader in points per game and is the only first-year player in the country to average 18.0 points, 4.0 assists and 3.5 rebounds per game, and one of two freshmen since 2009, joining UConn's Paige Bueckers in 2021, to post that line with 3.0 turnovers per game or less.

• Oklahoma led from wire-to-wire, notching the team's ninth wire-to-wire win of the season and third in SEC play.

• Oklahoma has now won nine straight against Missouri, matching its longest active winning streak against any Division I team. The Sooners haven't dropped a game to the Tigers since March 11, 2008, and has won 18 of the last 20 meetings dating back to 2000.

• Payton Verhulst registered a double-double with 16 points, 12 rebounds and four assists. The guard, who scored 38 points against Missouri last season, now has eight career double-doubles and two this season.

• The Sooners started the same starting five (Chavez, Vann, Verhulst, Williams, Beers) in every regular season game this season as OU was one of 12 teams nationally to do so. Baranczyk has rolled out the same starting five for an entire regular season one other time (2023) as the OU head coach. The 2026 starting unit is the second-highest scoring five in the country, trailing on South Carolina.

• Oklahoma heads to the SEC Tournament in Greenville, S.C., this week as the tourney's No. 5 seed. It will face either Florida or Mississippi State on Thursday at 12:30 p.m. CT. If the Sooners win that game on SEC Network, they'll face No. 4-seeded LSU on Friday at 1:30 p.m. CT on ESPN.