Williams Leads Sooners Past Cincinnati, OU Stays Unbeaten In Big 12

A late rush from the Oklahoma offense, powered by Sahara Williams' career day, led Oklahoma past Cincinnati, 77-64, at Lloyd Noble Center on Saturday as OU remained unbeaten in conference play.

The win extended Oklahoma's (9-5, 3-0 Big 12) winning streak to three games as the Sooners improved to 3-0 in the league for the first time since 2016-17. Williams scored a career-high 18 points, including 12 in the fourth quarter, in Saturday's win over Cincinnati (8-6, 0-3).

"I'm proud of how we stuck together," head coach Jennie Baranczyk said. "It was really fun to watch our group bring the fun to basketball. Before things went well, we just had fun playing and that's when stuff started to go well. We just want to make sure that we continue to have fun playing basketball and that we play hard, and the scoreboard will say whatever it's going to say."

OU opened strong for the third contest in a row, holding the Bearcats to 29% in the opening frame and outscoring them 17-9. Holding Cincinnati to single digits in the quarter marked the third consecutive game that the Sooners had held an opponent to single digits in a frame. Things opened up for both sides offensively as the Sooners took a 31-26 lead into the break – Cincinnati entered the day 0-5 when trailing at the half.

The Bearcats came out firing on all cylinders in the second half, opening the third quarter on a 14-3 run that erased the deficit and turned it into a 42-34 lead for UC. An Aubrey Joens 3-pointer, OU's second of the day and first since it opened the game with one, fell to snap the cold streak and make it a five-point game. A pair of free throws from Williams reclaimed the advantage for Oklahoma with 2:05 left in the third quarter, and Baranczyk's team never looked back. Cincinnati cut the OU lead to one point with 6:31 left in the frame but never overcame the Sooners, who closed the game on a 21-9 burst to win by 13.

Oklahoma forced 23 Bearcat turnovers and coughed it up 12 times as the Sooners outpaced UC 24-7 in fast break points. The Sooners and Bearcats each shot 38.6%, but OU took 13 more shots than Cincinnati. OU posted 23 assists to UC's five but dropped the battle on the glass, 41-40.

Williams' 18 points on 5-of-10 shooting included a pair of 3-pointers and a perfect 6-of-6 day from the free throw line. Skylar Vann and Aubrey Joens each finished with 10 points, with Vann grabbing six rebounds and Joens five. Nevaeh Tot dished out a team-high six assists to go with six points, while Payton Verhulst posted nine points, five rebounds and five assists. Lexy Keys, the Big 12's leader in steals per game in conference play, posted three steals Saturday.

The Sooners turn their attention to a battle with No. 11 Kansas State in Manhattan, Kan., on Wednesday at 6 p.m. The game will air nationally on ESPNU.