by OU Athletics Communications
NORMAN – The Oklahoma women’s basketball team improved to 8-1 on Tuesday by defeating Eastern Michigan 94-58 in Norman behind four Sooners that scored in double figures. With the win, head coach Jennie Baranczyk reached 200 wins in just her 10th season as a head coach.
Taylor Robertson, Ana Llanusa, Madi Williams and Kelbie Washington (Choctaw) combined for 70 of the Sooners’ points in the win as Oklahoma has now won five straight games and is off to its best start since 2015-16. Oklahoma (8-1, 0-0 Big 12) held Eastern Michigan (2-4, 0-0 MAC) to just 32% shooting on the night.
“Another great and fun team win for us tonight,” Baranczyk said. “I thought in that second half we just started to be ourselves and when we do that, we are a really good basketball team. To me, we’ve got to just keep doing that and just being ourselves. Defensively, we continue to take positives steps. I’m proud of this team.”
Baranczyk now owns a career record of 200-97 (.673) and is the sixth head coach in the Big 12 Conference to reach the 200-win mark, but reaches the milestone third fastest among her league counterparts.
Oklahoma shot 46% from the field led by Llanusa, who scored all 17 of her points in the first 20 minutes of the game on 5-of-9 shooting. It’s Llanusa’s second consecutive game with 17 first-half points. Williams added eight points in seven rebounds in the first half en route to her fourth double-double of the season. The Sooners were nearly perfect from the free throw line in the first and second quarters, sinking 14-of-15 attempts as Llanusa, Robertson and Williams combined for 13 of the 14 makes. OU took a 46-35 advantage into the break.
The Sooners turned up the intensity on both sides of the ball in the third quarter, outscoring the Eagles 26-9 in the frame. Before its big run, OU led by eight points at the 8:09 mark of the third quarter before Baranczyk’s team went on a 22-4 run over the next 7:29 to take control of the game and a 28-point lead into the final quarter. The Sooners continued to pour it on in the fourth quarter as Washington scored eight of her career-high 16 points in the frame. Oklahoma held Eastern Michigan to 24% shooting throughout the entire half, only allowing seven made baskets.
As a team, the Sooners set a new season-high with 12 steals, with nine players registering at least one takeaway. OU grabbed 44 rebounds to EMU’s 38, outrebounding its opponent for the sixth time this season.
