Plumley Gets Sooners Past Lady Raiders

By Jay Langley - Special to KLBK.com (Lubbock, TX) With 6-foot-4 Oklahoma center Courtney Paris receiving a lot of the hype, it was a player of far less stature that led the Sooners to a 70-67 win over the Lady Raiders Saturday at the United Spirit Arena. In only her second career start Oklahomas 5-foot-4 point guard Jenna Plumley led the Sooners (20-4, 10-3 Big 12) with a career high 22 points. "Shes a little fire cracker, you gotta love her," Lady Raider coach Kristy Curry said of Plumley. "I thought she shot the ball extremely well today, but shes a set shooter. We allowed her to get her feet set and didnt do a good job on her. I hope my 3-year-old who looks like shes going to be about that size can be like Jenna." Plumley, whose career high before Saturday was an 11 point effort against Texas, was 6 of 8 from 3-point range. "She had some huge threes tonight," Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale said of her freshman guard. "It takes a lot of guts to pull that trigger. They were at critical times and that changes momentum and does a lot of things besides just give you three points. Its changes the environment youre playing in." The Lady Raiders (15-12, 6-7 in Big 12) were led by seniors Alesha Robertson and Patrice Edwards who each poured in 16 points. Oklahoma had a 10 point lead with just 5:42 to play but the Lady Raiders used a quick 11-2 run to cut the lead to 61-60 with four minutes to play. Tech kept the score close and with 21 seconds to play, the Raiders got the ball trailing by just three. But Edwards missed a lay-up with four seconds left and Tech was forced to foul Paris. After Paris missed the front end of a 1-and-1 Robertson tried to get a shot off but the clock ran out with her dribbling toward half-court. "There are several things that we could have done and shouldnt have done," Robertson said. "But like coach said, the bottom line is they scored more points than us." For the game Paris had 18 points and 16 rebounds. But the All-American shot just 6 of 19 from the floor. "Weve said all along shes probably going to get her double-double," Curry said of Paris, "but let her get in the 20s and dont let her get in the 30s and shut every body around her down. But I guess it was good enough for them to win today." Saturdays loss was the fourth in five games for the Lady Raiders who play next Wednesday at Texas A&M. "Im really proud with how hard these kids have played the past two games," Curry said. "Thats what its going to take this next week and I have no doubt these kids are going to bring it."