DENVER — The BYU women's basketball team has seen plenty of Denver the past couple of weeks. On Monday night, the Cougars saw way too much of Paris.
That would be Oklahoma center Courtney Paris, who poured in a game-high 30 points and pulled down a game-high 15 rebounds against BYU, prompting Cougar coach Jeff Judkins to call her "the Shaq (Miami Heat center Shaquille O'Neal) of women's basketball."
For much of the first half, No. 7 seeded BYU had Paris flustered and was giving the No. 2 seeded Sooners all they wanted. With three minutes remaining before halftime, the Cougars trailed by only one point.
But early in the second half, Paris started to dominate. Faster than you could say "Boomer Sooner," Oklahoma had surged to a big lead and eventually ended the Cougars' NCAA tournament, 86-70, at the Pepsi Center.
The Sooners, meanwhile, advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2002.
Paris, the Big 12 freshman of the year, simply had her way in the second half. BYU threw almost every defensive look imaginable at Paris — including double- and triple-teaming — but Oklahoma (30-4) found ways to adjust.
"We've always been a great second-half team," Judkins said. "For some reason tonight, it backfired. Oklahoma came out with more intensity. It looked like Courtney Paris must have gotten yelled at at halftime and decided to take over the game. She scored more points in the first three minutes (of the second half) than she scored in the whole first half."
"In the first half, I panicked a little because I didn't know where the double teams were coming from," Paris said. "I got frustrated at first, but I figured it out and made it happen."
"She's a really great player," said BYU center Dani Kubik. "She has the size to muscle around down there."
The Sooner guards did their damage from the outside, draining a flurry of 3-pointers. Oklahoma's Erin Higgins and Krista Sanchez drilled eight 3-pointers between them as the Sooners extended their lead to as many as 27 points in the second half.
Judkins praised Paris, but he also praised his team for the way they competed.
"Every time that (Paris) went out, we outplayed them," he said. "When she came back in, they outplayed us. That shows you what kind of impact she has. Everybody feeds off of her. Players are afraid to drive on her. She is their only rebounder. When the ball goes up, the other four players run down court."
Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale had kind words to say about BYU.
"It was a really good BYU team, really good," she said. "They were hard to guard. We had to do a lot of different things, change a lot of matchups. They were relentless on the boards. We got really hot in the second half and made some threes. We had some good looks and converted them. Sometimes that is easier said than done, and we were able to blow the score up. And obviously Courtney's presence was difficult to contend with."
BYU, which was picked to finish sixth in the Mountain West Conference in the preseason poll, finished its season with a 26-6 record.
NOTES: The Cougars struggled from outside, making only six of 23 shots from behind the arc . . . BYU's all-time record in NCAA tournament now stands at 3-7 . . . BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe was among a group of school administrators who made the trip to Denver to support the Cougars.
E-mail: jeffc@desnews.com