Skylar Vann and Oklahoma easily dispatch Iowa from women’s NCAA Tournament, 96-62

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — Skylar Vann scored 17 points, Payton Verhulst added 16 and No. 3 seed Oklahoma cruised into the Sweet 16 of the women’s NCAA Tournament, dispatching No. 6 seed Iowa 96-62 on Monday.

Raegan Beers had 11 points, 13 rebounds and four blocks in just 18 minutes for the Sooners. She helped Oklahoma outrebound the Hawkeyes 64-33.

Oklahoma coach Jennie Baranczyk beat her alma mater and advanced past the second round for the first time in her four years with the Sooners.

“Today’s a big moment,” Baranczyk said. “There’s a lot of emotions in the game. I was really proud of the steadiness that we had.”

Baranczyk played for Iowa when current Hawkeyes coach Jan Jensen was an assistant there. Baranczyk said Jensen was one of the main reasons she entered coaching.

The coaches embraced after the game.

“I’m proud of her, and I know she’s proud of us,” Baranczyk said.

Oklahoma (27-7) will play UConn or South Dakota State on Saturday in Spokane, Washington.

Caitlin Clark had led Iowa to the previous two national championship games before she became the No. 1 overall pick in last year’s WNBA draft. Without her, the Hawkeyes shot 36.4% from the field. Lucy Olsen scored 20 points and Kylie Feuerbach added 14 for Iowa (23-11).

“As I told our team, it wasn’t the outcome we wanted,” Jensen said. “Certainly, the way that we played wasn’t how we had been playing. But credit a really good Oklahoma team.”

Iowa ran out to a 10-4 lead, but the Sooners closed the first quarter on a 16-1 run. The Sooners led 38-27 at halftime despite Beers sitting out most of the half with two fouls.

Baranczyk was visibly upset as she returned to the court for the second half.

“Well, just sometimes, you can’t keep getting beat on the same damn thing,” Baranczyk said. “So sometimes you just have to learn. And we just made a much better adjustment in the second half. So we can leave it at that.”

Oklahoma made three 3-pointers in a 55-second span early in the second half to go up 49-32. The Sooners pushed the lead to 68-43 by the end of the third quarter.

Eleven players scored for Oklahoma.

“We’re hard to guard,” Vann said. “When you have — if you look at the stats, I mean, we have multiple scorers today. To have that, that’s how connected we were. We were giving each other the ball. We were really being aggressive on offense and defense, getting rebounds, getting second opportunities to score.”

Takeaways

Iowa: Even when the 6-foot-4 Beers was out of the game with early foul trouble, the Sooners dominated the glass. Oklahoma finished with 24 offensive rebounds and 22 second-chance points.

Oklahoma: The game was close while the Sooners missed open shots in the first half. Once they started falling, it turned into a rout.

Key moment

Iowa’s Hannah Stuelke made a reverse layup but connected with Beers’ face and was called for an intentional foul. Verhulst made both free throws, and then Vann hit a 3-pointer on the extra possession to give the Sooners a 43-29 lead.

“That was a five-point swing at the wrong time,” Jensen said.

Another Vann
Zya Vann, Skylar’s younger sister, changed the game when she subbed in early. The freshman scored 10 points and had a plus-33 rating in 23 minutes.

Key stat

Oklahoma made 9 of 17 3-pointers in the second half after making 2 of 17 in the first.

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