Oklahoma’s Chavez earns Dawn Staley’s respect with 15 points in OT to stun No. 2 South Carolina

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — Aaliyah Chavez could barely hit anything.

Then she couldn’t miss.

Oklahoma’s freshman point guard scored 15 of her 26 points in overtime, and the 16th-ranked Sooners stunned No. 2 South Carolina 94-82 on Thursday night.

Chavez’s overtime point total was a school record, and the clutch performance helped the Sooners match the highest-ranked opponent they have beaten in school history.

Chavez scored three points in the first half on 1-for-7 shooting and had nine points going into the fourth quarter. She made just 4 of 14 field goals in regulation before making all five of her shots, including four 3-pointers, in overtime.

Her overall performance earned South Carolina coach Dawn Staley’s respect.

“She was great,” Staley said. “She ran her team, hit big shots, handled the ball. Everything that you want a point guard to do.”

Chavez said even when she was missing shots, teammates Raegan Beers and Sahara Williams hyped her up.

“My teammates kept on telling me to keep on shooting,” she said. “Sahara and Raegan looking and they were like, ‘That’s a great shot. I’ll take that shot a million times with you.’ So just knowing that they trust me on taking the shots that I was taking, it just brought my confidence up.”

Chavez entered the game as Oklahoma’s leading scorer with 18.8 points per game, but she approached this game looking to create. She had seven assists in regulation.

“You can see like, I wasn’t forcing my shots,” she said. “I was trying to make sure that it was the best play for Oklahoma.”

Once overtime hit, Chavez was aggressive, but still didn’t force shots.

“I thought Aaliyah, especially in that overtime, I thought she was just like, ’OK, let’s go. Not, ‘I gotta do anything. I need to make sure I’m doing this,'” Oklahoma coach Jennie Baranczyk said. “She got the ball where it needed to go, and she just played.”

The victory snapped a three-game losing skid for Oklahoma, with losses to ranked opponents Ole Miss, Kentucky and LSU. Baranczyk said beating South Carolina was big, but the Sooners can’t celebrate for too long.

“This isn’t the end of our road,” she said. “You know, this isn’t a Super Bowl win, you know, because if it is, then you’re not ready for the next one in this league. You’ve got to be ready for everyone.”

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