Ranked Sooners power to 83-48 win over Otahks

NORMAN, Okla. -- Southeast Missouri State University's women's basketball team faced its second ranked opponent in its first three games Monday night when it faced the No. 19 Sooners.

Unlike Southeast's opener, when the Otahkians hung in with then No. 19 Utah until late in the game on the road, Southeast could not compete with a physically imposing Sooner team and was routed 83-48.

Southeast (1-2) tied the game at 6-6 early in the game, but the Otahkians saw the Sooners go on a 14-2 run to pull ahead 20-8 about midway through the first half. The Otahkians kept the Sooners within 10 for much of the first half, and Southeast even closed to within seven at 27-20 with less than three minutes remaining before halftime. But in the last few minutes Oklahoma pushed its lead to 14 and ran away with the game in the second half.

Chandra Brown led Southeast with 13 points in the first half. Brown finished with 16 points after fouling out midway through the second half. Brown also led the Otahkians with seven rebounds.

Oklahoma's big forwards helped the Sooners outbounded Southeast 46-26 in the game, including 36-18 on the defensive glass. Southeast also had problems shooting the ball, hitting only 29.6 percent from the floor.

Freshman Jessica Aebi added nine points for Southeast and Sami Jo Cotton had seven.

Leah Rush led Oklahoma with 16 points, Caton Hill had 14 and Maria Villarroel, B.J. Smith's former player at Northeastern Oklahoma A & M, had 11.

Southeast will travel south for the Corpus Christi tournament with games on Friday and Saturday. Southeast faces Bowling Green in the opening round.

Noteworthy

Southeast center Brown was selected newcomer of the week in the Ohio Valley Conference for last week after pacing the Otahkians with 17 points in Southeast's first regular season win over Southern Illinois Carbondale. Brown also had eight rebounds in the game.