NORMAN, Okla. - Having already made school history by appearing in the NCAA Tournament, the No. 13 seed IUPUI Jaguars tried to climb even higher and win their first-ever game at the Big Dance. They came within six points of doing so.
 
Ultimately, the No. 4 seed Oklahoma Sooners escaped with a 78-72 home court victory at Lloyd Noble Center. In so doing, Oklahoma propelled the Big 12 to a 12-0 March Madness start. No other conference has ever opened an NCAA Tournament in such a dominant manner.
 
A 22-2 edge in fast-break points proved critical for the Sooners in what was otherwise a hard-fought matchup. Oklahoma head coach Jennie Baranczyk showed respect for the Jaguars postgame.
 
"I can promise you I've been on the bad side of seeding and I think IUPUI is a little bit better than a 13 seed," she said. "They are a very good basketball team."
 
Oklahoma's All-Big 12 First Team players, Taylor Robertson and Madi Williams, helped make possible its first March Madness win since 2017. Robertson scored a game-high 22 points, adding four rebounds and four assists. She also went 8-of-9 at the charity stripe to seal a win for her team. Williams notched 21 points and six boards of her own.
 
For IUPUI: Macee Williams, the four-time Horizon League Player of the Year, scored 17 points, 13 rebounds and six assists in defeat (an effort that will likely help her WNBA aspirations). Rachel McLimore added 18 points and five boards, while Anna Mortag contributed 14 points—nine in the final quarter.
 
"I was proud of our players," said Jaguar head coach Austin Parkinson. "We're the No. 1 3-point shooting team in our league. We got so many open looks and missed shots and in a game like this, that sometimes can be the difference. But I'm proud of this group. We were right there and a couple shots away from potentially being a different result."
 
Macee flexed her muscles early, scoring 10 of IUPUI's 17 first-quarter points. The Sooners were buoyed by Skylar Vann, who played despite injuring her knee in her team's Big 12 semifinal loss to Baylor. Vann made her first two shots and capitalized on a late Jaguar turnover, laying one in as time expired to give Oklahoma an 18-17 lead after one frame.
 
Two 3-pointers from Nevaeh Tot and a pretty driving layup from Liz Scott established an eight-point Sooner lead midway through the second quarter. A Perkins 3-pointer drew the Jaguars back within three, but Oklahoma took a 41-37 advantage into halftime. Both teams floundered offensively to end the half, with IUPUI going 1-of-7 and the Sooners going 0-of-4.
 
The Jaguars continued to struggle, shooting 0-of-11 to begin the third quarter. Robertson took advantage of that four-minute scoring drought, eclipsing 440 career 3-pointers as she pushed the Sooners to a 10-point lead. Natalie Andersen finally ended IUPUI's drought, and a Morgan Allen post hook briefly cut the deficit to single-digits. Yet, a Madi Williams buzzer-beater took Oklahoma to the fourth frame up 59-49.
 
IUPUI trailed by as many as 18 during their December upset of Iowa, and fans were hoping their team could recreate that comeback magic tonight. It didn't look good at first, with the Sooners widening their lead to 14. Then McLimore hit the first Jaguar deep ball of the second half (after 12 prior misses as a team) at 3:51 of the fourth quarter. Mortag surged from there, draining a 3-pointer of her own to make it 74-70 with 24.8 seconds on the clock.
 
Yet the Sooners were just too far ahead, and with IUPUI forced to foul, Robertson's calm work at the free throw line iced the game.
 
"I was just proud of my team for [how] we fought back," said McLimore. "A lot of teams that miss that many shots in a row would just fold and lose by 20, and we made it a game. So that's one thing about us; we are not going to give up and we are going to fight until the end."
 
IUPUI finished shooting 36 percent from the floor and just 21 percent from beyond the arc. The Jaguars actually out-rebounded Oklahoma 45-42, including a 15-9 edge in offensive rebounds. In comparison, the Sooners shot at a 43 percent clip, including 35 percent from beyond the arc. Vann ended up with 13 points and five rebounds, and Tot (at 5-foot-2) notched 10 points and eight boards.
 
Oklahoma will on Monday night face No. 5 seed Notre Dame in the second round of the women's NCAA Tournament.
 
Meanwhile, IUPUI is headed home. The Jaguars might be disappointed at tonight's outcome, but they can be proud of the ground they broke this season. After all, a team that finished eighth in the Women's Mid-Major Top 25 poll has shown once again that it can hang with the best in the country.
 
"Our kids I think represented IUPUI really well," Parkinson said. "Finally—after having the tournament canceled two years ago—to be able to play on a national stage and have people tuning in at nine, ten o'clock tonight, and see what these kids are capable of, I think was really neat."