Sooner women get season-opening win

By Ryan Aber

Published: November 15, 2008

NORMAN — If Saturday is any indication, this season's Oklahoma women's team will be quite different from the one whose season ended in disappointment last season.

In their 88-57 win over UC-Riverside in front of 7,007 at the Loyd Noble Center, the Sooners showed an all-around attack that has sometimes been lacking in recent years.

Six Sooners finished in double figures as OU started the season with a win in the first round of the Women's NIT.

The Sooners, the top seed in the tournament, will host the winner of Saturday night's Middle Tennessee State-Lafayette game at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

Courtney Paris, who finished with a team-high 16 points and 14 rebounds, said the performance wasn't a surprise based on what she's seen lately.

"It's nothing new because it's been in pickup, it's in practice," Paris said. "It's not like we have to cram it into the post.

"It's amazing how different our team is and it's only going to make us better in the long run."

Nyeshia Stevenson scored 14 off the bench, Ashley Paris, Amanda Thompson and Danielle Robinson had 13 and Whitney Hand scored 11 in her first regular-season game.

The 88 points were the Sooners most in the regular season since they scored 95 against South Carolina last December. OU topped 80 seven times last season.

Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale said it's likely that mark will be topped plenty this year.

"We just have so many offensive weapons that, if everybody's sharing the basketball the way we share it now, anything less than 80 should be a disappointment," Coale said. "I love to play fast and I love to play pure."

It wasn't just on offense where OU showed its versatility.

The Sooners outrebounded Riverside 50-24 and had 14 steals.

"It's that combination of size and speed that can make us really dangerous," Coale said, about the Sooners' trap defense.

"It's a good nucleus of kids to be able to do a lot of different things defensively."

Oklahoma's rebounding and defense helped the Sooners get off 14 more shots than the Highlanders.

While OU's offense was spread around, Kemie Nkele was the only consistent offensive threat for Riverside. Nkele had a game-high 31 points. Only one other Highlanders player scored in double figures.

It's early in the season, but through one game, the Sooners like where they stand.

"I think that we didn't like the feeling that we had last year," Robinson said. "Our chemistry is great this year and we just have experience."

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