Sooner Women Win, Coale Earns 400th Victory

The Oklahoma women's basketball team topped Washington 90-80 in its season opener Friday night inside Lloyd Noble Center, marking the 400th career victory for head coach Sherri Coale.

Coale, who has spent her entire collegiate coaching career with the Sooners, credited her team and staff for the milestone.

“I have a fabulous team. I love who they are and tonight I really loved how they played,” Coale shared. “I appreciate the recognition for the 400th win but I haven't made a basket or gotten a rebound in 19 years. It's the players doing it. I have a phenomenal staff. Jan Ross has been by my side for 19 years, for every single one of them. Lots of great coaches, lots of great players do that.

“I told our team in the locker room, the exclamation mark for me tonight is that we played the way I believe the game is supposed to be played,” Coale continued. “We played it with full out effort, we played it together, we helped each other, we shared the ball, we moved around as one, our behavior was championship in every way, shape and form and that's the most rewarding part of this to me. That's the exclamation point of the night, the way we performed.”

A pair of double-doubles from senior Sharane Campbell-Olds and redshirt junior Kaylon Williams paced the Sooners in the wire-to-wire victory.

Campbell-Olds was dominate in the first half, scoring 14 points on 5-for-6 shooting. She went on to finish with team highs in points (26) on 9-for-12 from the floor, rebounds (11) and steals (3).

Seventeen of Williams' career-high 23 points came in the second half. The redshirt junior also grabbed 10 boards in 29 minutes, more playing time than she accumulated in any single game last season.

“Well, I thought she was fantastic,” Coale said of Williams' performance. “She was just so confident with what she did whether it was receiving the ball, going after a rebound, helping on defense, going to score, she was just really confident.”

The Sooners jumped to an early 11-0 lead to open the game, outscoring the Huskies 48-32 in the first half. The visiting Pac-12 squad answered in the second half, putting together a 10-0 run after OU scored the first basket of the period, before the Sooners pulled away yet again.

Washington was able to stay in the game behind a Husky school-record 45 points from sophomore Kelsey Plum, but got no closer to OU than six points with 1:10 remaining.

Also finishing the contest in double digits for the Sooners were junior Nicole Kornet (14 points) and redshirt sophomore Peyton Little (12 points); playing her first game as a Sooner after transferring from Texas A&M.

OU's starting lineup included Williams, Little, Campbell, freshman Gabbi Ortiz and sophomore Gioya Carter. The Sooners concluded the game at 50.8 percent from the field (32-for-63) and 33.3 percent from behind the 3-point line (7-for-21).

The Sooners return to the court at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 18, as they face Lamar inside Lloyd Noble Center.