The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
NCAA Women's Basketball First Round: Oklahoma 74, Southeast Missouri State 60
03.17.2007 | Women's Basketball
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AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- There's more to the Oklahoma Sooners than Courtney Paris.
Just enough, it turns out, for the third-seeded Sooners to hold off No. 14 Southeast Missouri State 74-60 on Saturday in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Freshman Jenna Plumley, all 5-foot-4 inches of her, had 20 points behind six 3-pointers and Leah Rush scored 19 to lead Oklahoma (27-4), which struggled to put away the Redhawks in front of a pro-Sooners crowd.
Sonya Daugherty led Southeast Missouri State (24-8) with 25 points in the Dayton Regional's opening game. The Redhawks trailed 64-58 with four minutes to play before Plumley hit her fifth 3-pointer, then buried another 60 seconds later to make it 70-60. Plumley also had seven assists.
Paris, one of the most dominating players in the country, struggled the entire game but still got her 59th consecutive double-double with a burst in the final five minutes to finish with 13 points and 11 rebounds.
Rush was 8-of-12 for the Sooners, who shot 57 percent.
The Redhawks stunned the Sooners with a fast start.
Daugherty hit two 3-pointers and Southeast Missouri State led 22-14. Defensively, the Redhawks clogged the passing lanes to prevent the Sooners from dumping the ball down low to Paris, who took only two shots in the first half.
Even when the Sooners tried to lob it in, the Redhawks were able to tip it away. Paris had only three rebounds in the first half and twice the Redhawks ripped the ball from her strong hands.
The Redhawks were on a roll until a 3-point attempt by Ashley Lovelady wedged between the rim and the basket. The stop in play gave the Sooners a chance to regroup.
An 18-5 Oklahoma run -- including a long 3-pointer from Plumley, who seemed to inch farther and farther out each time she shot -- put the Sooners up 26-23 and Oklahoma led 37-34 at halftime.
Paris started the second half with a strong baseline layup the first time she touched the ball and ripped down three straight rebounds on the other end. The basket made her the fastest player in NCAA history to reach 1,500 points and 1,000 rebounds -- she did it in her 67th career game.
Oklahoma kept stretching its lead from the outside. A 3-pointer by Rush, at 6-1 a tough mismatch when she pulls up from the arc, helped put the Sooners up by 10.
Plumley had two nifty assists to Paris on tosses inside, then found her shooting stroke again. After hitting four 3-pointers in the first half, she had missed her first three attempts in the second and seemed to get a little wild with her shot selection.
But when Missy Whitney hit a 3-pointer to get the Redhawks within six, Plumley launched one in a high arc that swished in and seemed to calm the Sooners' nerves.
When she followed it with yet another, the Redhawks were out of chances to rally.
