Oklahoma scoring leaders Raegan Beers and Aaliyah Chavez are almost opposites.
Beers is a strong, steady 6-foot-4 senior center who was a first-team All-Southeastern Conference selection. Chavez is a mercurial 5-foot-10 freshman point guard who was a second-team choice.
Coach Jennie Baranczyk has made the combination work, as the duo has powered an offense that ranks third nationally with nearly 87 points per game. The Sooners (24-7), seeded fourth
in the Sacramento 4 Region, will host No. 13 seed Idaho (29-5) on Friday night in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Chavez is the team’s leading scorer with 18.4 points per game. In her breakout moment, she scored 15 points in overtime to lead the Sooners past then-No. 2 South Carolina. Still, she is shooting just 37.8% from the field and 31.4% from 3-point range on the season.
Part of Baranczyk’s challenge has been giving Chavez freedom as her highly recruited star balances her natural tendency to take over as a scorer with the need for her to distribute. Chavez had seven assists in regulation against South Carolina before the scoring explosion in overtime, showing she can do both well against elite competition.
Even with the growing pains, Baranczyk loves having Chavez on her side.
“I don’t underestimate her in any game, in any situation,” Baranczyk said. “She’s not out here to prove herself or to prove anything. She wants to play Oklahoma basketball, and that’s actually 100% of who she is and why I absolutely love coaching her and why her team absolutely loves playing with her.”
Chavez is a 93.9% free-throw shooter on 115 attempts, so she often creates problems when she drives, even when her shot is off.
“I love her effort and her energy,” Baranczyk said. “I think that part is always really good. And you can see that she has gotten better. She’s put different people in different positions. But I want her just to go have fun and play.”
Beers is a powerhouse in the paint who affects the game on offense, even when she doesn’t have the ball. She averages 15.7 points on 61.5% shooting and grabs 10.4 rebounds per game.
Beers surpassed 2,000 career points during an SEC Tournament win over Florida.
“While that is an individual achievement, I also see that as a team achievement," she said, “and I’m so thankful for the group that I got to achieve that with, and excited for our run that we’re going to keep going on.”
The Sooners are much more than a two-person team. Junior forward Sahara Williams averages 12.5 points and 7.9 rebounds. Senior guard Payton Verhulst averages 11.9 points per game and sophomore guard Zya Vann averages 10.5.
A possible rematch with South Carolina looms in the Sweet 16, but Baranczyk is focused on an Idaho team that won the Big Sky Tournament.
“We’re not in a place that we’ve ever been able to look far ahead,” Baranczyk said. “We’ve been to the Sweet 16 and that’s it. So we can’t worry about who we might play later. We’ve got to be able to make sure again that we come out and we’re really good against Idaho on Friday.”
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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
