KANSAS CITY, Mo. — When Oklahoma and Baylor get together, the margin for error is minuscule. These two women’s basketball powerhouses are known for games where one shot, one rebound, one play is the difference between winning and losing.
The Sooners got their one shot from Nyeshia Stevenson with a 3-pointer from the corner with 4 minutes left. The basket gave the third-seeded Sooners their first second-half lead in a 59-54 victory over the sixth-seeded Lady Bears in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 tournament Friday night at Municipal Auditorium.
“Nyeshia joined us for the party a little later than I would have liked, but she did join and you say she did a great job,” OU coach Sherri Coale said.
Stevenson only scored 12 points, but 10 were in the second half and eight were in the final 4 minutes when OU slowly erased a five-point deficit.
Points were hard to come by on both ends. They have been when OU and Baylor have met this season. They split the regular-season meetings, but neither scored more than 62 points in either game, and it took overtime for them to reach that in OU’s 62-60 overtime win Feb. 10 at Lloyd Noble Center.
The reason was Baylor center Brittney Griner. The 6-foot-8 freshman makes getting to the basket tougher than maneuvering through rush-hour traffic.
Friday night she blocked 10 shots (a tournament record), limiting the Sooners to a 38.1-percent (24-for-63) shooting effort.
But OU (22-9) never stopped going at Griner. The freshman was playing in her first game since serving a Big 12 Conference-mandated suspension for throwing a punch at a Texas Tech player in the second-to-last game of the regular season.
She didn’t show any rust on the defense end.
“I would say after my first block, I felt like I was back in the groove,” Griner said.
On the other end, however, OU contained her. Abi Olajuwon and Joanna McFarland combined for nine fouls with McFarland fouling out. But the Sooners’ post duo held Griner to 13 points and outrebounded her 16-6.
“It was a night of toughness,” OU’s Amanda Thompson said after scoring 15 points and pulling down eight rebounds, “and Abi brought that toughness and so did Joanna McFarland.”
It wasn’t a game for the faint of heart. There wasn’t a lead larger than five points over the 40 minutes and there was never a feeling that either was going to separate until the final minute.
OU’s Danielle Robinson kept OU in it until her teammates heated up, scoring a game-high 26 points.
But it wasn’t until Stevenson caught fire that the Sooners made their game-winning push.
For the first 36 minutes, she was having a rough night. Shots weren’t falling. Her poker face hid the frustration, but she was boiling inside.
Then Coale called a play for her to get an open shot from the corner.
“I was like, ‘Wow, you really believe in me after an airball and all these bricks,’” Stevenson said. “I think that’s what did it.”
She didn’t cool off. She added another 3 a minute later that gave OU the lead for good and a driving layup over Griner with 2:20 to go.
“Nyeshia Stevenson executed. Danielle Robinson got her the ball, and I think their overall team — they’re older and more experienced and they executed at the end,” said Baylor’s Morghan Medlock, who scored a team-high 18 points for the Lady Bears (23-9).
OU’s win set up a third Bedlam game this season and the second one in less than a week. Oklahoma State (23-9) knocked off Iowa State 62-59 earlier Friday to set up today’s 2:30 p.m. meeting in the semifinals.
The Sooners swept the regular-season games, including a 95-62 romp last Sunday.
“It’s always going to be a battle,” Robinson said, “it’s the postseason. So it’s win or go home.”
John Shinn 366-3536 jshinn@normantranscript.com
