OU women's basketball suffers bad loss on the road to Colorado

Not bad with respect to the final score, but bad in the sense that this is not a team OU should be losing to even if it was a road game.  Shortly before the game started, I was watching the announcers to their lead in for the game and it was pretty evident that there was maybe a couple hundred people in attendance.  Immediately I started to worry because as someone who has watched a majority of this team's games over the past 3-4 years I can remember multiple games where they have played in front of similar sized crowds and come out totally flat.  Well Wednesday night proved to be another one of those games and while they did jump out to an early lead, the Sooners just seemed to get more and more disinterested as the game wore on.  In one way I can understand how it would be hard to get up for a game when you're coming off playing in front of 10,000+ and now you're playing in front of a good high school crowd, but it's certainly no excuse for dropping a very, very winnable game.

Much like the men's game against A&M, the women were doomed by a poor night from the field.  Whitney Hand, coming off easily her best game of the season, went 0-fer from the field (0-5 and 0-2 from three) collecting a measly three points all from the free throw line.  The normally reliable Aaryn Ellenberg had a rare off night finishing with just five points on 2-7 shooting.  OU was again lead by Danielle Robinson's 21 points, but D-Rob was again in early foul trouble and forced to sit extended minutes in the first half allowing the Buffs to gather some momentum and take six point lead into the locker room.  The only other Sooner to join Robinson in double figures was freshman Morgan Hook (10 points), but that was on 3-10 shooting.

The second half was a back and forth affair, with OU repeatedly closing the gap to a basket or two but never being able to recapture the lead.  CU got a boost from guard Brittany Spears (no, not that one) and her 24 points, but it wasn't necessarily the number of baskets she got rather the timeliness of them.  She continually hit big shot (many of them 3's) after big shot whenever CU needed it. 

So with that, the women lose a game that most would have considered an easy W heading into the contest.  Now they must rebound to face a Baylor squad this Sunday in Norman (4pm central on ESPiN2) that embarrassed the Sooners in Waco.  It will be a big game for the women as they look to get a big win over a top three team and establish some momentum to close out their season and head into the Big 12 tourney.  A win needed to help dispel this OU fan's fear that they choke and pull a one and done in the Big 12 tournament and a far too early exit in the big dance.  I sincerely hope I'm wrong, but if the shooters have an off night this team really struggles to compete with tournament (and even lesser quality) teams.