No. 16 OU women’s basketball defeated Auburn 72-65 on Sunday.

The Sooners’ (16-4, 4-3 SEC) win over the Tigers (13-8, 2-5) marks the team’s third road victory this season and second straight conference win following their triumph over No. 2 South Carolina on Thursday.

Here are three takeaways from Sunday’s game:

Sooners rely on strong inside presence

The game plan was clear early in Sunday’s contest, as OU used its dominant inside scorers to its advantage with quality looks in the paint and crashing on the boards.

Senior center Raegan Beers was the focal point of the Sooners’ offense early with 7 first-quarter points but was sidelined early in the second quarter after picking up her second foul of the half. Freshman forward Brooklyn Stewart emerged as the foundation of the Sooners offense in Beers absence until Beers’ return in the third quarter, scoring at will inside and collecting rebounds with ease. Stewart finished the first half with 8 points and collected four rebounds to help the Sooners have a 35-30 lead and 16-8 points in the paint advantage at the break.

The interior remained a critical part of OU’s strategy in the second half as the Beers/Stewart frontcourt duo wreaked havoc once again around the basket. The two bigs combined for 25 points and 14 rebounds with Stewart finishing with a career-high 12 after 4 second-half points. Beers finished the game with 13 points and six rebounds despite being in foul trouble in the second and fourth quarters.

Beers and Stewart helped the Sooners record 32 points in the paint against Auburn.

Defense prevails for OU

Junior forward Sahara Williams and senior center Raegan Beers led the Sooners to a dominant defensive performance.

Williams followed her high-energy defensive performance against South Carolina on Thursday, where she had eight defensive rebounds and two steals. She played a scrappy first half against Auburn and grabbed three steals and a block in her 15 minutes on the floor. She led the nation’s best defense in opponent field goal percentage, as the Sooners forced Auburn to shoot 38% from the field and held the Tigers to 2 second chance points at the half.

Beers also played a role as OU’s defensive anchor when Williams was sidelined due to picking up her fourth foul early in the third quarter. The veteran center made her presence known on the defensive end, picking up three defensive rebounds and a block.

The OU defense stayed strong across the entire game to make up for its offense that struggled to generate points consistently, marking its sixth game with 75 points or under this season and just its second win at that mark. 

Sooners survive a sloppy performance

The Sooners were in a funk on Sunday as the team was unable to find any rhythm with many players finding themselves in foul trouble early on.

Four Sooners finished the first half with two fouls, and those early mistakes continued to haunt them. Notably, Williams saw limited minutes in the second half after picking up two quick fouls to open up the half.

The focus on interior play also led to turnovers from wild passes inside and offensive fouls from players battling to get positioning, which allowed Auburn to stay close all game despite trailing for nearly 36 minutes. The Auburn defense kept the nation’s second highest scoring offense in check with the Sooners shooting 25% from 3-point range. Freshman guard Aaliyah Chavez was the only exception, scoring 12 of her 18 points from outside and finishing the game as the Sooners’ leading scorer.

OU, the best rebounding team in the nation with 51 rebounds a game, also put up a less than convincing showing on the boards against Auburn, the worst rebounding team in the SEC, with a 39-31 advantage.

Next, the Sooners will face Texas A&M (8-7, 1-5 SEC) at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Lloyd Noble Center on the SEC Network.

This story was edited by Joshua McDaniel.

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