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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Sherri Coale crouched down in front of Rose Hammond on the Sooner bench, imploring her to be the same player she'd been in the days leading up to Oklahoma's NCAA Tournament opener.

Then Coale sent her in, looking for a spark.

"I talked to her about being a defensive stopper, being that activity, that energy we needed on the defensive end,” Coale said.

"And I talked to her about what she had done in practice the last four or five days, how nobody could stay in front of her and how she could get to the rim and score. And that we needed her offense, too.”

Points taken.

Hammond was the last Sooner off the bench in Sunday's 69-61 win over Illinois State, yet may have been No. 1 in terms of impact on the victory.

The sophomore guard tied a career-high with 12 points, including a critical 18-foot jumper to slow a Redbird rally late. She added three rebounds, two assists and two steals in 25 minutes — her most ever at OU.

"The last few weeks of practice, we've been working on playing hard,” Hammond said. "That was my mindset coming in, just play hard.

"So the whole time, I had confidence coming from these last two weeks.”

When Hammond made her first appearance midway through the first half, the Sooners were sluggish, struggling to hit shots and mired in a tussle with an unranked Missouri Valley squad that was the No. 13 seed in the Oklahoma City Region.

The former Depew star immediately delivered some much-needed confidence and production.

"It's people like Rosie coming in and being confident to knock down that shot,” said Courtney Paris. "In the first half, they were sagging off Rosie's man to help us. I was like, ‘Rosie, go score. They're not guarding you, go score.'

"And that's what she did. That's where her confidence is right now.”

It's a confidence that had gone missing for most of the Sooners.

Not Hammond, as she proved when given the chance.

And given an open shot with OU up just 61-58 with 2:02 remaining and in a three-plus-minute scoring funk, Hammond banged the shot home.

"I think the play was for Jenna,” Hammond said of fellow sophomore teammate Jenna Plumley. "I came off, and I was open on the other side. I'm pretty confident in my shot, so I just shot it.

"They left me wide open. I knew we needed it. I just stepped up and shot it.”

Said Coale: "I'd seen a lot of that in practice the last three or four days, felt like that's what we needed. I thought she was great.”