The Oklahoma Sooners women’s basketball team has not been very lucky this season on the injury front. On Thursday night, Whitney Hand-Jones tore her ACL in the Sooners 71-68 win against over North Texas.

The 5th-year senior is the team leader and suffered the injury before halftime and the Sooners second half rally. The crowd gave the senior a standing ovation when she was being taken from the court after a contested layup attempt that resulted in a bad fall.

They trailed the mean green late in the game and rallied back to pull out the win. Sooners head coach Sherri Coale after the game:

I don’t know if I’ve ever been prouder of a team in 17 years of doing this. Unbelievable determination and they revealed their mettle and their character. I talk about their character all the time. It’s one thing to talk about it, it’s another thing for however many people got to witness it tonight.

Joanna McFarland and Nicole Griffin stepped up to push the Sooners to the win, with McFarland having her first double-double game and Griffin led the scoring for the Sooners with 15 points and 9 rebounds.

The No. 13 ranked Sooners are now 8-1 on the season. They have a week off for finals and will return to the court to face Vanderbilt on December 16th.

The annual Naismith Women’s College Basketball Player of the Year watch list was announced on Thursday and it includes two Sooners. The players on the list are Aaryn Ellenberg and Whitney Hand-Jones.

Hand-Jones who married Sooners QB Landry Jones over the Summer will still go by Hand on the court, but will be listed as Whitney Jones elsewhere. Hand averages 16.5 points and a team-leading 7.0 rebounds so far this season. She is fifth among the Big 12 Conference’s active career scoring and rebounding leaders.

Ellenberg has been the team’s leading scorer so far this season, averaging 21 points per game. She holds the record at Oklahoma for all-time 3-pointers scored, with 179.

The Sooners are sitting at a 1-1 record after a surprising loss Wednesday night against UCLA. Even with Ellenberg and Hand’s 43 combined points, the Sooners still fell short. The Sooners got completely beat under the backboard for offensive rebounds, giving up 24. Coach Sherri Coale after the game:

I’m disappointed with our effort and our response to the physical play. If that’s the way they’re going to play then we have to adjust to it, and we have to fight back and be just as physical as they’re being. I didn’t think we responded in the right way.

You don’t beat anybody when you give up 24 offensive rebounds. It’s just a number that’s unheard of. At halftime, 23 of their points were from offensive rebounds, that is us beating ourselves. All of this stems from the physicality, on the ball and away from the ball.

The Sooners move on to host St. Louis on Sunday for game 3.

The Sooner Women hoops team dominated the Michigan Wolverines Sunday night in the first round of the women’s NCAA Tournament. Aaryn Ellenberg had an outstanding 28 points, hitting 10 3-pointers. Ellenberg had limited playing time in the first half due to foul trouble, but came out firing on all cylinders in the 2nd, scoring 13 of the Sooners first 14 points.

The Sooner defense held the Wolverines to only one basket over a 5 minute span and were never down. The closest it was at one point was an 8-point lead. Whitney Hand also had a great night for the Sooners, scoring 12 points, 10 rebounds and six assists.

The Wolverines’ lead scorer, Carmen Reynolds, put them the closest they had been all night to catching up with the Sooners, by hitting 3 3-pointers to make the score 66-58. Reynolds ended up scoring 20 points, and their normal high scorer, Rachel Sheffer, was held to three.

The leader board for the game:

The win pushed the Sooners to 8-1 at home during the NCAA tournament. The last time they lost, they were the lower-seeded team. This same scenario will be played out Tuesday night, when Oklahoma will be taking on No. 3 seed St. John’s.

Sooners Whitney Hand and Danielle Robinson

There has been a love hate relationship with the Oklahoma Sooners and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish that goes way back to the early history of both college programs. Predominately in football, but in recent years, this rivalry has spilled over to women’s hoops. Today, the 6th seeded Sooner women’s basketball team takes on 2nd seeded Notre Dame in Dayton, Ohio for  a Sweet 16 match up. The Sooners were in this exact situation last season against the Irish and won 77-72 in an overtime finish.

This is going to be another one of those overtime finishes. Both teams are known for high scoring offenses and nine of the Irish wins were by 35 points or more. The Sooners are lead by Senior Danielle Robinson who averages 18 points per game, but Whitney Hand, who is Sooner QB Landry Jones’ girlfriend by the way, has been the break out star of the tournament, leading the team in scoring.

One thing is for sure, Head Coach Sherri Coale, who is in her 15th season with the Sooners, will have her ladies ready. Coach Coale leads the Big 12 in conference wins and all time winning percentage since the conference has been established. She is “Big Dance” ready.

The game tips off today at 1:30 from the University of Dayton Arena in Ohio. You can catch the game on ESPN. Boomer Sooner.

Photo provided by Associated Press