The Oklahoma women’s basketball team looked the part of the sixth-ranked team in the country on Monday night.
The Sooners, in their season opener, dispatched visiting Belmont with relative ease, 84-67, in an early night game inside Lloyd Noble Arena. Preseason All-American Raegan Beers led the team with 29 points while adding 10 rebounds, while Sahara Williams joined her with a double-double of her own: 11 points, 14 rebounds.
Oklahoma scored the first 14 points of the game to make quick work of the Bruins. The final score difference would have been much greater had the Sooners not struggled in two areas. OU made just three of its 23 3-point attempts and shot just 50%, 15 of 30, from the free-throw line.
It ultimately mattered little as Payton Verhulst and Aaliyah Chavez joined Beers and Williams in double figures. Chavez, in her collegiate debut after arriving to OU as the No. 1 recruit in the nation, played 37 minutes and grabbed six rebounds while dishing out a team-high five assists. She did shoot just 5 of 18 from the field and 1 of 8 from range, however.
Still, Oklahoma could use the opener as a de facto warm-up. It’s one they needed, too, as the Sooners travel to California to face No. 3 UCLA in their second game of the season on Monday, Nov. 10. The game can be seen on Fox Sports 1. After that, OU doesn’t play another ranked team until December.
This article originally appeared on Sooners Wire: No. 6 Oklahoma topples Belmont in season opener
