Kansas City, Mo — Stacey Dales and the Oklahoma Sooners are enjoying the Big 12 Conference tournament for a change.
No. 7 Oklahoma (26-4) made eight three-pointers in the first half and went on to tie the tournament record of 14 en route to a 102-93 semifinal win over No. 20 Colorado on Thursday night.
The top-seeded Sooners, who had never won a Big 12 tournament game before this year, cruised into Saturday's final against No. 13 Iowa State. The third-seeded Cyclones beat No. 11 Texas Tech 73-62 in the other semifinal.
"This is definitely an exciting team," Dales said. "We're having fun. Postseason is a lot of fun. We're just enjoying the ride."
The Sooners also broke the previous points record of 98 set by Texas A&M in 1998.
"We wanted to push the ball," said Caton Hill, who led the Sooners with 23 points and 11 rebounds. "If we kept doing that, we knew it would be hard for Colorado to keep up."
Five other players scored in double figures for the Sooners. LaNeishea Caufield had 19 points, Rosalind Ross 17, Dales 16, Sunny Hardeman 15 and Jamie Talbert 10.
Mandy Nightingale scored 22 points, Linda Lappe 18 and Jenny Rouilear 15 for fourth-seeded Colorado (21-8).
Oklahoma never trailed and led 50-39 at halftime.
The Buffaloes cut a 14-point deficit to seven in the second half, but Hardeman answered with two three-pointers to hold them off.
No. 13 Iowa St. 73,
No. 11 Texas Tech 62
Kansas City, Mo. Angie Welle had 25 points and 11 rebounds as Iowa State beat Texas Tech in the other semifinal.
Second-seeded Texas Tech (23-6) led most of the first half and led 33-29 at halftime, but Erica Haugen hit a three-pointer to give the Cyclones the lead at 55-53 with 7:47 left in the game. Iowa State then scored seven straight to put the game out of reach.
Lindsey Wilson scored 15 and Megan Taylor had 10 for Iowa State. Planette Pierson scored 13, Jia Perkins 12 and Katrisa O'Neal 10 for Texas Tech.
Iowa State lost to Texas Tech in the final game of the regular season 68-60.
Top 25 women
No. 16 SW Missouri St. 92, Indiana St. 63
Springfield, Mo. Jackie Stiles scored 22 points to lead Southwest Missouri in the opening round of the Missouri Valley Conference tournament.
It took Indiana State (10-18) more than six minutes to score a field goal in each half.
Southwest Missouri (23-5) opened the game with a 17-3 run before Indiana State scored a field goal with 13:47 left in the half. The Bears shot 67 percent from the field in the first half and led 47-28 at halftime.
Erika Rante scored 15 points for Southwest Missouri and Tara Mitchem added 14. Erica Vicente finished with 11 assists.
Box scores on page 8C
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