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| U.SportsMonday, March 24, 2008 9:49 PM CDT |
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Sooners give credit to Redbird women
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Oklahoma women’s basketball coach Sherri Coale referred to Illinois State as “Southern Illinois” during Sunday’s postgame news conference. | Photo gallery | NCAA women's basketball scores, stats | ISU women come up short Coale’s faux pas aside, the Sooners came away with genuine respect for ISU after their hard-earned 69-61 win over the Redbirds in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at Mackey Arena. “They’re a really good offensive team,” Coale said. “They are a hard-nosed, tough, efficient offensive team. We forced them into 18 turnovers, and that’s very uncharacteristic of them. “They can all score and they’re very smart. If you switch on all their screens, they’ll start slipping and getting to the rim and they hurt us with that late in the second half. They’re very talented.” ISU did a good job of containing Oklahoma’s 6-foot-4, 240-pound All-American junior forward Courtney Paris, last year’s Associated Press National Player of the Year. The foul-plagued Paris, who was double- and sometimes triple-teamed by the Redbirds, finished with 12 points and 12 rebounds to extend her streak of double-doubles to 91 games. Paris’ twin sister, 6-3 Ashley Paris, led Oklahoma with 13 points. “They gave us a tough game, and that’s what we expected,” Courtney Paris said. “It is tournament time, and they were urgent. They have some pretty talented players and they just stayed with it the whole time.” Courtney Paris didn’t assert herself until the second half when she and Ashley fueled a 19-4 run that extended Oklahoma’s 31-29 halftime lead to 50-33. “She’s just a tremendous player,” ISU coach Robin Pingeton said of Courtney Paris. “We knew we couldn’t shut her down. We were just trying to contain her and battle her every possession. “We thought we had a couple of players with their size and thickness that could wear on her as the game progressed. Both Courtney and her sister are just so strong and so explosive. They have great hands and great touch around the basket.” Pingeton gave muscular 6-foot-2 senior center Lashawn Johnson her first start of the season in effort to slow the Paris sisters. Usual starter Nicolle Lewis, a 6-6 sophomore, also saw extensive playing time in the post and snapped a three-game scoreless draught. “It was more of a match-up issue,” Pingeton said. “I think we could have went with Shawn or Nicolle, who I thought played a good game. We just felt with Shawn being a senior and more of a physical player than Nicolle, it could be a positive change for us. Shawn is a little more athletic and has the ability to get rebounds that maybe Nicolle can’t.” Johnson, guard Tiffany Hudson and reserve guard Tamara Butler played their last game for ISU, which was making its second NCAA appearance in four years and its fifth overall. “We’re losing three very special seniors, kids that have certainly left their legacy behind in our program,” said Pingeton. Hudson played a major role as ISU trimmed a 17-point Oklahoma lead to three in the final minutes. “We’re losing a great leader in Tiffany Hudson,” said ISU junior guard Kristi Cirone. “You can’t take any credit away from the other seniors, either. They all stepped up and showed great leadership and did anything they could for their teammates.” E-mail this story | Print this story | Search archives | RSS Show comments |  Hide comments | Hide comments on all stories |
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