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February 5, 2010

Finding the perfect cure

Both Cowgirls, Sooners look to Bedlam for remedy following lopsided losses

By Scott Nulph Stillwater NewsPress

STILLWATER — The Oklahoma State Cowgirls experienced something foreign to them in the 2009-10 season on Wednesday: Being totally dominated in a game.

Nobody had done to the Cowgirls what No. 4 Nebraska did to them in an 88-67 loss in a game that wasn’t even as close as the final score indicated.

So what’s the best medicine to quickly get rid of a post-Cornhusker hangover?

Take one Bedlam and all the symptoms seem to just disappear.

No. 10 OSU (18-4 overall, 6-2 Big 12) hosts No. 13 Oklahoma (15-6, 5-3) at 2 p.m. today at Gallagher-Iba Arena.

Today’s game marks just the third time in the history of the Bedlam series that both teams enter the game ranked. The other two came during the 2007-08 season.

And both teams come into today’s game likely a little on the ornery side. While OSU was getting throttled in Lincoln, the Sooners were losing 75-57 to Texas in Norman.

“This is the perfect team for us to play right now,” said OSU senior center Megan Byford, a Bray native. “Both of us are going to be hungry coming in here. They’re coming off a loss on their home floor, we’re coming off a loss against Nebraska. It will be a good test for us to see how we respond to some adversity now.”

The Cowgirls also have history to deal with when it comes to the Sooners.

Oklahoma has won a staggering 20 of the last 21 times the two teams have met. OSU’s lone win in that time came two years ago when Andrea Riley dropped 45 points on OU in Stillwater in an 82-63 win.

However, today’s game marks the first time in a long time that the Cowgirls come in the higher-ranked team and ahead of the Sooners in the Big 12 standings.

Nebraska may have locked up the Big 12 regular-season championship with its win on Wednesday, but there’s still plenty for both teams to play for, including a top-four seed and a bye in the first round of the conference tournament.

“This is what people around this area have been wanting for a long time, two top 20 teams in the nation going at each other,” OSU coach Kurt Budke said.

Today’s game features two of the top point guards in the country in OSU’s Riley and OU’s Danielle Robinson.

Riley leads the Big 12 and the nation in scoring at 25.8 points a game and leads the Big 12 in assists at 7.1 per game. Robinson averages 16.4 points and 5.1 assists.

Budke, however, feels the game will come down to how well those around each team’s star performs.

“Both those point guards are going to get what they always get,” Budke said. “They key is everybody else. Who among the role players are going to step up and have a special night?”

Today’s game starts a stretch for the Cowgirls of playing four of their next five games at home. They will also be attempting to avoid back-to-back loses for the first time this season.

“If we were playing someone who wasn’t such a rival it might be hard to forget about it (the loss to Nebraska), but this is Bedlam and we’re going to have a great crowd,” Budke said. “The excitement in the gym will be the best it’s been all year long. In this league if you pout about a loss very long it will turn into two, three losses pretty quickly.”

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