DePaul defeats Oklahoma in high-scoring women’s tournament game

DURHAM, N.C. – DePaul and Oklahoma traded shot for shot, point for point, in the highest-scoring regulation game in NCAA tournament history.

The Blue Demons managed to scrape together the one defensive stop they needed to win it.

And they got some help from the sideline.

Megan Rogowski scored 24 points and hit the go-ahead 3-pointer with 40.5 seconds left, and DePaul beat the Sooners 104-100 on Saturday in the first round of the tournament.

“‘Survive and advance’ has become a cliche,” DePaul coach Doug Bruno said, explaining that he prefers to have control of his fate and have “something to do with dictating your survival. What are we doing to dictate our survival?”

On this day at least, they were scoring.

Chanise Jenkins added 21 points and Brittany Hrynko had 19 for the seventh-seeded Blue Demons (28-6). They blew a 19-point lead with under 16 minutes left, before rallying to earn a spot in the second round against second-seeded Duke (28-6) on Monday night.

Aaryn Ellenberg had 36 points and seven 3s for the 10th-seeded Sooners (18-15), who set a tournament record for most points by a losing team in a regulation game.

“The most I can take away from it is my effort,” Ellenberg said. “I gave all I had for 40 minutes. I don’t have anything to hang my head about.”

In what Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale called “a great showcase of what women’s basketball is all about,” her Sooners easily surpassed the previous record of 94 set by Michigan State in 1991.

The 204 combined points passed the previous mark of 201 set by Stanford and Arkansas in 1990 when the Cardinal won 114-87.

The overall record is held by Duke, which lost 121-120 to Alabama in four overtimes back in 1995.

Hrynko drove into the lane and found Rogowski in the left corner for an open 3 that put DePaul ahead for good.

“ ‘Rogo’ hit the shot,” Bruno said, “but Wryngo created the shot.”