|
|
 |
 |   |
|
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Video Plus Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities 
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
|  |
Sooners soar Oklahoma downs Colorado to make first Big 12 final
Updated: Thursday March 08, 2001 11:59 PM
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Stacey Dales and the Oklahoma Sooners are enjoying the Big 12 Conference tournament for a change. No. 7 Oklahoma (26-4) made eight 3-pointers in the first half and went on to tie the tournament record of 14 en route to a 102-93 semifinal win over No. 20 Colorado on Thursday night. The top-seeded Sooners, who had never won a Big 12 tournament game before this year, cruised into the finals. "This is definitely an exciting team," Dales said. "We're having fun. Postseason is a lot of fun. We're just enjoying the ride." The Sooners also broke the previous points record of 98 set by Texas A&M in 1998. "We wanted to push the ball," said Caton Hill, who led the Sooners with 23 points and 11 rebounds. "If we kept doing that, we knew it would be hard for Colorado to keep up." Five other players scored in double figures for the Sooners. LaNeishea Caufield had 19 points, Rosalind Ross 17, Dales 16, Sunny Hardeman 15 and Jamie Talbert 10. Mandy Nightingale scored 22 points, Linda Lappe 18 and Jenny Rouilear 15 for fourth-seeded Colorado (21-8). The Buffaloes cut a 14-point deficit to seven in the second half, but Hardeman answered with two 3-pointers to hold them off. "Kansas also came back on us," Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale said. "But we were able to weather it then, too. It's the maturity of this team. Colorado's not going to go away. We knew that." Oklahoma never trailed and led 50-39 at halftime. The Sooners will play the winner of the Iowa State-Texas Tech semifinal on Saturday. Colorado shot 56.1 percent from the floor and 69 percent from 3-point range. But Oklahoma just made too many 3s for the Buffaloes to keep up. "We almost didn't expect them to shoot like that from 3-point range," Colorado coach Ceal Barry said. "We knew they were going to run. But their outside shooting was truly exceptional."
Iowa St. 73, Texas Tech 62KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Angie Welle had 25 points and 11 rebounds on Thursday night as No. 13 Iowa State beat No. 11 Texas Tech 73-62 to advance to the finals of the Big 12 Conference tournament. Third-seeded Iowa State (24-5) will play No. 7 Oklahoma for the championship Saturday. Second-seeded Texas Tech (23-6) led most of the first half, but Erica Haugen hit a 3-pointer to give the Cyclones a 55-53 lead with 7:47 left. Iowa State then scored seven straight points to put the game out of reach. Lindsey Wilson added 15 points, and Megan Taylor had 10 for the Cyclones. Planette Pierson scored 13, Jia Perkins 12 and Katrisa O'Neal 10 for Texas Tech. The Lady Raiders led 33-29 at halftime. Iowa State lost to Texas Tech 68-60 in the final game of the regular season.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
