Oklahoma’s Raegan Beers has one last chance to reach the Final Four.
The 6-foot-4 senior has been one of the nation’s best post players the past three years, a third-team AP All-American as a sophomore and an All-SEC first-team selection as a junior and senior. She reached the Elite Eight as a sophomore at Oregon State, and the Sweet 16 last season as a junior at Oklahoma.
This season, she averages 15.7 points on 61.5% shooting and grabs 10.4 rebounds per game. She heads into this tournament having to depend on young players such as freshman guard Aaliyah Chavez to help her make the most of her final run. Fourth-seeded Oklahoma (24-7) will open against No. 13 seed Idaho (29-5) on Friday in Norman, Okla.
“Obviously, March Madness is the time that you all work for all season,” Beers said. “All the prep in the offseason, in the summertime, all those extra workouts — this is what it has led to. To do it with this group is really special.”
It’s not the most convenient opening matchup — the Sooners play at 9 p.m. local time. Beers will start her last push against an Idaho program that hasn’t been to the NCAA Tournament since 2016 and has never won a March Madness game.
Neither the time nor the opponent’s history matters to Beers.
“A basketball game is a basketball game,” she said. “I feel like because it’s March, we’re going to be ready regardless of what time it’s at because we’re going to be so excited.”
Winning streak
Idaho won the Big Sky Tournament and is on an 18-game win streak, and the Vandals plan for it to continue. Arthur Moreira, the Big Sky Conference Coach of the Year, said he doesn’t want his team to play timid.
“You have to go at them,” he said. “I think games like this, that’s what you have to do. You can’t respect too much who’s across from you. I have a lot of respect for Jen (Baranczyk) and her program, but in those 40 minutes that we’re going to play against each other, we got to play our game, and that’s what brought us here so far.”
Opposites collide
Two very different styles will clash when No. 5 seed Michigan State and No. 12 seed Colorado State meet on Friday.
Colorado State (27-7) allows just 54.9 points per game, seventh-lowest in the nation, and holds opponents to 35% shooting — also seventh nationally. The Rams have held 24 of their 34 opponents to 60 or fewer points.
Michigan State (22-8) averages 83.9 points per game, 10th-best nationally. The Spartans have five players who average double figures, led by Grace VanSlooten. The 6-3 center averages 15 points and 6.6 rebounds. Kennedy Blair adds 14.4 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. The Spartans shoot 48.1% from the field.
“We have to have a level of patience,” Michigan State coach Robyn Fralick said. “One of the phrases we’ve been using is ‘aggressive patience.’ We still have to play the way we love to play, but we also have to understand there’s a discipline and a patience to the possessions.”
Out with injury
Colorado State will be without star guard Lexus Bargesser in the tournament.
She left the Mountain West semifinal against UNLV in the second quarter with a season-ending knee injury. The senior guard averaged 15.6 points, 5.9 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.3 steals per game.
The Rams still beat UNLV, then defeated Air Force in the tournament final to advance to the NCAA Tournament.
“It’s been neat to see the kids kind of evolve into, although a short period, just different roles,” Colorado State coach Ryun Williams said. “And everybody is going to be asked to do something a little different either offensively or defensively in this tournament because of how valuable she was for us.”
Fralick still respects what the Rams can do.
“Colorado State is a really good team,” she said. “I mean, 27 wins is a lot of wins over the course of a season. What stands out about them is their patience, their discipline. You know, they do a really good job of executing on both sides of the ball.”
___
AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness