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Sherri Coale and the Oklahoma Sooners aren't used to playing from behind. When they have had to play catch up though, they've shown resiliency.
However, today the Sooners fought back but just ran out of gas.
Oklahoma (11-7, 2-3 Big 12) fought back from 17 points down but just couldn't get over that hump. The Sooners tied it up at 53-53 with 11:07 remaining in the game, but that's when West Virginia put the game out of reach. The Mountaineers ended the game on a 12-3 run, which saw Oklahoma shoot just 1-of-9 from the floor during that stretch.
Sharane Campbell contributed the only other double digit scoring besides Aaryn Ellenberg. She had 11 points on 3-of-8 shooting. Morgan Hook had seven points on 3-of-9 shooting and was just 1-of-4 in the second half.
Oklahoma fell 77-63, for their third Big 12 loss of the season. West Virginia improved to 16-2 on the season and 5-1 in the Big 12.
The Mountaineers hit seven of their first nine shots and were 6-of-9 from three-point range in the opening half, really pushing Oklahoma back on their heels.
Senior Aaryn Ellenberg had 28 points on 10-of-23 shooting. She scored 17 of her 28 points in the first half. Oklahoma used every point of that to get within eight points at halftime at 39-31.
Ellenberg has averaged 29.3 points in Oklahoma’s last three games. She was 5-for-12 from 3-point range and is just fifty-four 3-point makes shy of the NCAA career record of 392. Ellenberg now has 2,082 career points and is 43 shy of LaNeishea Caufield’s 2,125 points for fifth all-time at OU in career scoring.
West Virginia really took Oklahoma's turnovers and made the Sooners pay for them. The Sooners turned it over 17 times and it was recycled into 18 Mountaineer points. West Virginia was able to beat the OU on fast break as well, wining that battle 10-4.
Oklahoma will try to recover quickly from this loss as they now have to worry about the 13th-ranked Iowa St. Cyclones. The Cylcones won their previous match up with Oklahoma in overtime 82-75. That game is Tuesday in Hilton Collusieum in Ames, Iowa.
It's the first time the Sooners have started 2-3 in Big 12 play since the 1998-99 season.