LAS VEGAS – RV Oklahoma shot 56 percent from 3-point range as the Syracuse women’s basketball team fell, 82-63 to the Sooners on day two of the Duel In The Desert at UNLV’s Cox Pavilion on Monday afternoon. The Sooners (6-3) benefited from a 44.1 to 27.5 field goal shooting percentage advantage as the Orange fell to 8-4 on the season.
Elashier Hall led the Orange 19 points, 11 of which came on 13 free throw attempts. Rachel Coffey added eight points, all in the first half, leading a group of six Orange with between six and eight points.
Oklahoma’s Morgan Hook led all scorers with 21 points, while Joanna McFarland had 19 and Aaryn Ellenberg added 16. Hook and Ellenberg combined to go 8-of-11 from behind the arc.
Oklahoma held a 50-43 rebounding advantage. The Sooners’ Whitney Hand and SU’s Carmen Tyson-Thomas and Shakeya Leary had nine boards each.
Oklahoma outscored Syracuse 12-5 over the first seven minutes of the second half to turn a 12-point halftime lead into a 21-point lead, 60-39, from which the Orange could not recover. The SU deficit stayed between 19 and 23 points until a McFarland 3-point play with 3:42 to go made it 77-51.
Behind 6-of-10 shooting from 3-point range, Oklahoma took a 12-point lead into halftime, 46-34. The Orange shot 31.6 percent in the first half, recovering from a 5-of-21 start by shooting 7-of-17 for the rest of the half. Oklahoma shot 51.6 percent in the opening 20 minutes.
The Sooners jumped out to an 11-2 lead four minutes into the game as the Orange started 1-of-8 from the field. Oklahoma’s advantage reached as many as 16 in the first half, 27-11 with 8:23 left on a Ellenberg 3-pointer, but the Orange, led by six points from Shanee Williams, went on a 8-0 run over a 1:50 span to cut the deficit to eight, 27-19 with 6:13 left in the half.
The Orange got within seven, 39-32 with 2:17 left in the first half on a Coffey putback before the Sooners took a 12-point lead into halftime.
The Orange concludes play in Las Vegas on Tuesday with a 3 p.m. ET game against Ohio. Following the holiday break, SU will host Niagara on Dec. 29 at the Carrier Dome in a 7 p.m. tip.
Courtesy: SU Athletics
