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OU wins, Paris says team will win it all

OU's Courtney Paris shoots over Texas Tech's Kierra Mallard in the first half Wednesday. Paris finished with 12 points and 16 rebounds in her last home game. STEPHEN HOLMAN/Tulsa World

 
By LYNN JACOBSEN World sports writer
Published: 3/5/2009  2:19 AM
Last Modified: 8/20/2009  7:19 AM

 NORMAN — Ashley Paris left nothing to chance in the second half.

The Oklahoma senior scored 13 second-half points to finish with 15 and 10 rebounds and help No. 3 Oklahoma cement its sixth regular season Big 12 title with a 61-49 win over Texas Tech on Wednesday's Senior Night at the Lloyd Noble Center.

But her twin sister Courtney might have stolen the show in the postgame festivities when she guaranteed the fans a national championship.

"We're going to win a national championship," said the three-time consensus All-American who finished with 12 points and 16 rebounds. "We're going to win one. And if we don't I will pay back my scholarship.

"I feel that strongly about it. The university has given me so much that I want to give back. If I can't do it with the national championship I promised, I'll pay back my scholarship because I haven't earned it. I've thought about this for a couple of years."

Joining the Paris sisters in double figures was sophomore point guard Danielle Robinson, who led the Sooners (26-3, 14-1 Big 12) with 18 points.

Asked if she ever got tired of the Big 12 celebration, head coach Sherri Coale said, "Absolutely not, we'd like to do this every night if we could. It's fun, I'll tell you that. To be able to clinch it and celebrate on your home floor, it makes it that much more special because you get to share it with the best fans."

Of the twins' double double-double effort, Coale added, "If one twin does it, the other has to. It's a perfect way to end this for these seniors. It's hard to put into words what this senior class means. But it's not over, we have a whole lot of work to do."

Ashley Paris was 6-of-10 in the second half to record her 16th double-double of the season and 27th of her career.

"Ashley took it strong to the basket in the second half," Coale said. "She missed a few chippies in the first half and has a tendency to sometimes carry that into the possession. She just needed something good to happen."

Said Ashley Paris, "I tried to feed off Danielle's energy. I struggled on some possessions in the first half, and in the second I tried to be more of what my team needed."

Texas Tech (15-14, 5-10) also had three players in double figures, led by Dominic Seals and Kierra Mallard with 11 apiece. Maria Moore added 10 points for the Red Raiders.

Jordan Murphree, who scored 25 points in the game in Lubbock on Feb. 17, finished with eight.

The night started with the Oklahoma team singing the national anthem, to the delight of the 9,310 Lloyd Noble Center fans, most of whom remained to celebrate the careers of the Paris twins and Carolyn Winchester, who made her first career start Wednesday.

Oklahoma bolted to a quick 10-4 lead against Tech's zone defense.

"We were able to get the ball into the post but when they got out of the zone, we were a little off-sync after that," Coale said. "We let the flow of the game control us a little in the first half. We all feel like we played pretty poorly tonight and we had three players in double figures."

Tech trailed for most of the first half before taking a 28-25 lead into intermission.

But Robinson keyed a 10-0 run in the early minutes of the second half allowing the Sooners to take control for good. OU closed out the game on a 14-7 run.

"Our momentum through this game is going to carry us for the rest of the season," Robinson said. "We have a big one at Texas on Sunday and I think that the way this game ended is really going to push us through."

Oklahoma closes out the regular season at Texas on Sunday before opening Big 12 Conference Tournament play next week in Oklahoma City.



Lynn Jacobsen 581-8461
lynn.jacobsen@tulsaworld.com



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By LYNN JACOBSEN World sports writer

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Some reader comments for this story were copied from "Sooners win, Courtney promises title," which was published on 3/4/2009.
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LaffALot, (3/5/2009 9:12:30 AM)
Hope Paris’s comments didn’t get picked up by Coach, Geno Auriemma, Tina Charles, center, Maya Moore, “unstoppable“ forward, ‘all everything senior guard Renee Montgomery who all play for U Conn, the #1 team in the NCAA's who beat OU last Nov, 107-78 & are currently 30-0.
 

 
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