By Clay Horning
On the one hand, it was a rough game to watch. On the other, the Oklahoma women played to the end. And they had Abi Olajuwon on their side.
So, on a day the Sooners committed 19 turnovers, could hardly knock down a 3-pointer for the longest time (and from the tip could hardly make a shot), they nonetheless survived.
OU topped TCU 74-70.
Yet if it looked like a game the Sooners gutted out on a day they were less than their best, coach Sherri Coale wasn't that charitable.
"Our defense was more consistent, but I can't say that I thought our intensity and our focus, particularly on the offense end, was good," she said. "Defensively, early, our intensity was excellent. As the game wore on, we lost our focus a bit."
The Sooners committed 19 turnovers, shot 39.2 percent overall (29 of 74) and 27.3 percent (6 of 22) from beyond the 3-point arc.
They hit big baskets in moments but posted not one points-in-a-flash barrage like they managed three different times in their season- and home-opening victory over Mercer.
"We just need to slow down," said point guard Danielle Robinson, who dished eight assists, but also committed six turnovers. "We had a great week of practice and really progressed in our motion offense and we went out there and didn't do anything that we did in practice."
Even if the defensive effort wasn't maintained, the Sooners (2-1) still played a role in the Horned Frogs' 24 turnovers and the same awful shooting (39.4 percent, 29 of 74) they were suffering.
And they had the big player down low.
Olajuwon finished with four fouls, yet was never in real trouble. That allowed the senior post to play a career-high 30 minutes in which she netted a career high 23 points on 11 of 15 shooting, much of it coming on textbook post-up play in the low block. Only 1-of-6 free-throw shooting kept her from having a bigger day.
Sophomore shooting guard and team captain Whitney Hand was hard on her team, but thankful for Olajuwon.
"We didn't really do much, honestly. The first half showed that," she said. "There was no fight, there was no intensity. When shots weren't falling, we can't just stop playing ...
"We just stopped and stared at Abi. If Abi hadn't scored we would have lost by 20. We didn't do a lot right."
Olajuwon only corralled four rebounds, but that slack was picked up Amanda Thompson, who grabbed 11, and Carlee Roethlisberger, who had a strong game off the bench, grabbing nine boards to go with six points.
The best thing OU did, Olajuwon aside, was begin the second half strong, scoring 10 straight points to turn a 36-34 deficit into a 44-36 advantage. Robinson scored six of her 16 points during the run.
TCU tied the game 47-47 with 13:11 remaining, but never regained the lead.
The Horned Frogs got 19 points from Starr Crawford, 14 from Helen Sverrisdottir and 13 from TK LaFleur.
"We just aren't very good right now," surmised TCU coach Jeff Mittie.
OU was a couple buckets better.
Clay Horning 366-3526 cfhorning@normantranscript.com
