Aaliyah Chavez leads overtime comeback as Oklahoma tops South Carolina in basketball

Aaliyah Chavez reminded ballers that the season isn’t over yet Thursday night.

OK, Aaliyah Chavez.

The Sooner freshman hit the paint Thursday night scoring 26 points, of which, 15 were scored in the extra overtime period to help lift Oklahoma to a 94-82 upsent over South Carolina.

Both are top 25 ranked teams, according to the NCAA.com Net Rankings. But, the gap between them was vast until last night, when Chavez crashed the boards.

Chavez was making waves in high school. She caught the eye of ESPN, which ranked the guard the No. 3 recruit nationally.

The Sooners, originally a top 10 ranked team, seemed to have lost their stamina in recent contests. But, they may have turned their season around last night when they knocked the Gamecocks out of the top spot in the SEC.

The Gamecocks went on a 10-0 run before halftime, separating themselves from the Sooners by a score of 43-36.

The visiting team came out of halftime with a new mindset, and went on an 8-0 run, never letting up on momentum until the end of the fourth.

Tied at 75 with 18 seconds left, South Carolina had the ball. Raven Johnson, one of Dawn Staley’s star players, lost the ball as time expired, sending the game into overtime.

Disappointment and frustration was written all over the South Carolina bench, while the Sooners celebrated another chance at taking down one of the top teams. 

Chavez scored 11 points in regulation, but then took over during overtime, not only scoring her 15 points but also offering 8 assists. The Sooners were able to soundly beat the Gamecocks in overtime by 12 points.

Though South Carolina’s stars showed out in this matchup, they struggled with their fundamentals. The Gamecocks went 16 for 31 on layups, leaving 30 easy points off the scoreboard that could have turned this game around. 

The Gamecocks are now 19-2, and have two days to learn from this matchup before they host one of the two undefeated teams remaining in women’s college basketball, Vanderbilt.

The Commodores are one of the most competitive teams in the country this season, and will give South Carolina a fight if they aren’t at the top of their game.

Thank you for reading Female Athlete News. Clara Romae Slowinski is a student-intern at Penn State University.