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Oklahoma knocks off Duke, earns first trip to title game

SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- Oklahoma's amazing rebuilding project just keeps getting better.

Twelve years after the school nearly disbanded a program in disarray, the Sooners earned a shot at their first NCAA championship with a 86-71 win over Duke in the national semifinals Friday night at the Alamodome.

Rosalind Ross scored a career-high 26 points, hitting 4-of-8 3-pointers and grabbing 10 rebounds for the Sooners, who rushed out to an early lead and held off Duke's second half rally.

The Sooners (32-3), who were just 5-22 in coach Sherri Coale's first season six years ago, will play Connecticut in Sunday night's championship game.

"This is the moment we've all been waiting for. To get to the Final Four and now we're in the championship game," Ross said in the Sooners' locker room. "When I came in here, I wanted to cry."

Iciss Tillis scored 19 to lead Duke (31-4), which cut an 18-point deficit to two in the second half but couldn't take the lead before the Sooners pulled away late with a 22-5 run.

The loss snapped Duke's 22-game winning streak. It was the second-longest winning streak in the nation behind UConn (37-0).

In 1990, Oklahoma officials decided to drop the women's basketball program that was drawing only dozens of fans, but resurrected it almost immediately after an outcry from coaches around the country. Now the Sooners will be the first Big 12 team to play for the national title in the league's six-year history.

The Sooners looked jittery in the opening minutes of their first Final Four appearance, missing seven of their first nine shots. Duke's Alana Beard hit a 3-pointer to open the game and Blue Devils led 10-7 after the first four minutes.

Oklahoma settled down when Jamie Talbert hit consecutive layups and Stacey Dales hit a 3-pointer from the right wing to give Oklahoma its first lead at 14-13.

Dales converted a driving layup to cap a 9-0 Oklahoma run as the Blue Devils went scoreless on eight straight possessions.

The Sooners extended their lead when Ross hit another 3 from the corner and another Dales jumper made it 27-15 with 8:53 left in the half.

The Sooners were just as good on the other end. Frustrated by Oklahoma's defense, Duke had to slow down its transition into a halfcourt game. Instead of pushing the ball inside, the Blue Devils started settling for long-range jumpers that seldom found their mark. Duke went just 1-of-11 from the floor in the Sooners' 20-2 run.

The Sooners were especially effective in limiting Beard. The All-American shot 58 percent from the floor for the season but was just 3-of-10 and was scoreless over the last eight minutes of the half.

Beard, who averaged 20 points during the season, finished with 15 on 6-of-15 shooting.

"We just played really good defense," Ross said. "I felt we could pressure the guards and that's what me and LaNeisha [Caufield] did."

Duke, which has just eight players on its roster, finally snapped out of the slump with five consecutive free throws that cut the Oklahoma lead to 29-24. But Beard blew a fast-break layup that would have trimmed it to three.

It was a costly miss as OU's Ross answered with her second 3-pointer and the Sooners closed the half with an 11-4 run for a 40-28 lead.

Oklahoma stretched the lead as high as 54-37 with 16:03 to play when Dales scored five straight on a 3-pointer and a jumper from the key.

Threatened with a blowout, Duke finally untracked its transition offense behind Beard and Tillis, who started getting closer to basket.

Tillis scored 10 points in a 25-10 Duke run that cut Oklahoma's lead to 64-62 when Beard drove the baseline and fed Michele Matyasovsky for an easy layup with 7:49 to play.

But the run wouldn't last. Caton Hill hit another 3-pointer, and Ross made another 3-pointer that rolled around the rim before falling to push OU's lead back to 72-63.

"These guys never cease to amaze me," Coale said. "Caton is clutch. In a pressure game, she always thinks she's going to make it."

Duke then committed two straight turnovers that Ross converted into a fast-break layup and a 3-pointer off a pass from Dales to make it 81-65 with 3:27 left and put the game out of reach.

"We couldn't ever get it together," Tillis said. "We weren't ever smooth."

Dales finished with 17 points and Hill had 12. Oklahoma was 21 of 24 from the foul line as a team.

 

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