OU Women's Basketball Advances To Semi Finals After 70-59 Win Over Missouri

For whatever reason, the Sooners have really struggled with the Missouri Tigers this year. Despite sweeping the Tigers during the regular season, the Sooners only won the games by three and four points respectively. Throughout the first half early Thursday evening, it looked like Missouri had finally gotten over the proverbial hump. Sherri Coale's squad looked flat, careless with the basketball, and dreadfully cold from the floor. This combination of negative attributes lead to the Sooners scoring a measly 23 first half points and facing a ten point deficit.

Fortunately for OU fans, a different team came out of that locker room for the second half. In the final 20 minutes, the Sooners played with a fire that just wasn't there in the first half and surprisingly it wasn't a rally lead by the usual suspects. Typically, you'd expect to hear the names of Whitney Hand or Aaryn Ellenberg sparking a comeback but Thursday night in Kansas City it was a pair of freshman stepping up in the face of adversity.

Sharane Campbell, who was recently named the Big 12's Sixth Man of the Year, continues to impress coming off the bench and playing with an intensity few players can match. In addition to her energy picking up the entire team, she also scored a game high 22 points almost all of which came in the second half. Joining her in leading the comeback was fellow true freshman Kaylon Williams who recorded her second double-double (12 points, 10 rebounds) and at times put on a clinic down in the post. The aforementioned Hand was her usual reliable self filling up the box score with 10 points, six rebounds, five assists and two steals.

With the win, the Sooners advance to the semi finals and will face a very tough Texas A&M team who also just so happens to be the defending national champion. Under head coach Gary Blair, the Aggies have really had the Sooners number so Friday's matchup will be a difficult one for our Sooners. The game will tip off around 2:30pm CST and will be broadcast on Fox Sports Net.