Poor Shooting Sinks BYU Against Oklahoma In Big 12 Home Opener
Jan 3, 2024, 10:00 PM | Updated: 10:00 pm
BYU women's basketball lost to Oklahoma 75-63 at the Marriott Center in their Big 12 home opener. (Courtesy of BYU Photo)
(Courtesy of BYU Photo)
PROVO, Utah – BYU women’s basketball falls to Oklahoma, 75-63, in their Big 12 home opener at the Marriott Center.
The 1,748 fans in attendance got their first experience with Big 12 hoops in Provo, and they were greeted by cold shooting from the home team.
#BYU coach Amber Whiting after the loss to Oklahoma: “It’s pretty simple. We have to make shots.”#BYUWBB #Big12 pic.twitter.com/jUHe6bCj0g
— Mitch Harper (@Mitch_Harper) January 4, 2024
BYU shot 22% from the field and 13% from three in the first half. That number saw a slight uptick after a third-quarter push, but BYU still finished the game at 29% and 30% beyond the arc.
“It’s pretty simple. We have to make shots,” said BYU coach Amber Whiting. “I don’t see us ever shooting that low and I think that’s the lowest field goal percentage of the season. We had open looks and we have to knock them down.”
BYU starting five Emma Calvert was 2-of-10 from three, freshman guard Amari Whiting made only two of her ten field goal attempts. The only player for BYU who shot at a respectable clip was Lauren Gustin, who hit 7 of 12 and finished with 15 points.
The loss drops BYU to 0-2 in Big 12 play.
Oklahoma coach Jennie Baranczyk probably put it best in her opening remarks to the assembled media, “Welcome to Big 12 basketball.” The margins will be thin for this BYU women’s basketball team that only had a rotation of seven players tonight.
Oklahoma coach Jennie Baranczyk and forward Skylar Vann had high praise for #BYU star Lauren Gustin after her 20 round performance.#BYUWBB #Big12 pic.twitter.com/sY6am4llJw
— Mitch Harper (@Mitch_Harper) January 4, 2024
Four of BYU’s starting five players logged 34 or more minutes against the Sooners. Meanwhile, Oklahoma played 11 players and no one had more than 30 minutes on the court.
Here’s a recap from BYU’s Big 12 home opener setback.
First Quarter
BYU’s offense was missing throughout the first quarter. The Cougars were shooting 6% from the field with two minutes left in the quarter. Then Lauren Davenport hit a floater in the key to bring BYU’s first quarter average to 15%.
Oklahoma knocked down four three-pointers while BYU was 0-for-8 from beyond the arc.
BYU had open looks, but they couldn’t knock anything down in the opening 10 minutes.
Oklahoma 18, BYU 8
Second Quarter
The offense improved slightly, but BYU’s shooting percentage at the half was a poor 22% from the field.
Oklahoma committed two more turnovers than BYU in the first half and still took a 17-point lead into the halftime break.
The Sooners poured all of their focus into shutting down BYU star Lauren Gustin. Every time Gustin touches the ball, she’s instantly double-teamed. Gustin still scored nine points and grabbed ten rebounds in the first half.
BYU’s lack of depth was on display against the Sooners as Oklahoma played 11 players in the first half to BYU’s seven.
Oklahoma 40, BYU 23
Third Quarter
BYU reeled off a 16-3 run to cut the deficit to seven. It felt like a new ball game at that moment 4:54 remaining in the third.
Then Oklahoma popped off a 6-0 run of their own to get the lead back to 13.
BYU’s offense came to life in the third quarter by hitting 50% of its three-point attempts.
Amari Whiting knocked down her first field goal of the game to close out the third quarter with a halfcourt buzzer-beater heading into the final ten minutes of action.
Oklahoma 58, BYU 46
Fourth Quarter
Oklahoma built their lead up to 16 points early in the fourth quarter and never looked back from there.
The Sooners outrebounded BYU 55-43 despite the 20 rebounds from Gustin.
Final: Oklahoma 75, BYU 63
Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (Saturday from 12–3 p.m.) on KSL Newsradio. Follow Mitch’s coverage of BYU in the Big 12 Conference on X and Threads: @Mitch_Harper.
