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| U.SportsMonday, March 24, 2008 9:49 PM CDT |
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ISU women come up short
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- The Paris sisters had their moments for the Oklahoma women’s basketball team Sunday at Mackey Arena. In the end, the littlest Sooner and the rest of Oklahoma’s role players had the final say against gutsy Illinois State. | Photo gallery | NCAA women's basketball scores, stats | ISU men's NIT tickets go on sale | OU gives Redbirds credit Five-foot-4 sophomore Jenna Plumley hit four clutch free throws in the final 21 seconds to keep it a two-possession game, and No. 4 seeded Oklahoma withstood a furious second-half comeback by No. 13 ISU to claim a 69-61 win in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. “This shows we can play with teams like Oklahoma,” said ISU junior guard Kristi Cirone, who had a game-high 22 points. “It gives all the younger players and myself more experience. “We know what it takes to step up and play hard and what we can do when we play like that.” Oklahoma (22-8), which managed only a 31-29 halftime lead over the turnover-plagued Redbirds, opened the second half with a 13-0 run as All-American Courtney Paris and twin sister Ashley took over inside. “It was nice to have a little run in the second half where we shot the basketball pretty well,” said Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale, whose team missed 15 of its first 20 shots. “It gave us some life.” The lead grew to 50-33 with 11:51 remaining before ISU (26-7) came storming back with a 25-11 burst to cut the deficit to 61-58 with 2:02 left. Cirone kept it a three-point game at the 1:02 mark with a pair of free throws. After ISU freshman Shala Jackson missed a jumper that could have cut Oklahoma’s lead to one, Plumley calmly sank her free throws to deny ISU’s upset bid and snap the Sooners’ three-game losing streak. “Jenna is terrific from the free throw line, so we always like the ball in her hands at the close of a game” Coale said. “I don’t even watch most of the time because I know she’s going to make them 90 percent of the time.” ISU, which received 17 points from Jackson, staged its rally after missing its first eight shots of the second half. The Redbirds also had 18 turnovers, 13 coming in the first half when the Sooners struggled from the field. “I am so proud of our kids,” said ISU coach Robin Pingeton. “When we got down 17 it could have been so easy for them to throw the towel in, and they didn’t. They were warriors and they battled back, and that’s the kind of team we’ve had all season long.” Ashley Paris led Oklahoma with 13 points, while Courtney had 12 points and 12 rebounds to extend her double-double streak to 91 games despite playing in foul trouble most of the game. “The name of the game is surviving and advancing,” Courtney Paris said. “The momentum in the second half was really important because we didn’t get the run we wanted to start the game.” Danielle Robinson and reserve guard Rose Hammond added 12 points each for the Sooners, who built a 42-34 rebounding edge the Redbirds, including a 15-8 advantage on the offensive glass. The Sooners shot 41 percent while committing 13 turnovers. “We wanted to guard from inside out,” Pingeton said. “We felt like if they knocked down consecutive shots from the 15-foot range, then our next attempt would be to make them put it on the floor. “For the majority of the game, I liked our game plan. I felt we executed it really well.” Cirone and Jackson were the only players to score in double figures for ISU, which shot 39 percent overall (22 of 56) and 28 percent from behind the 3-point arc (5 of 18). Senior guard Tiffany Hudson scored seven of her nine points during ISU’s rally. “In the beginning, myself included, we were a little tight with the ball,” Cirone said. “We were kind of getting used to their style of defense. I felt after awhile we settled down and started playing our basketball. “Not to take anything away from Oklahoma -- they were a great team and they played great defense -- but we just weren’t hitting our shots. We kind of dug ourselves a hole. We fought so hard to come out of it, and it just shows great character about our team.” E-mail this story | Print this story | Search archives | RSS Show comments |  Hide comments | Hide comments on all stories |
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Loyal Reader wrote on Mar 24, 2008 7:18 PM:
drj wrote on Mar 24, 2008 6:47 AM:
cliff wrote on Mar 23, 2008 9:26 PM:
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