Nov. 9—Through the first three quarters of Oklahoma’s season opener against Oral Roberts, Taylor Robertson attempted just three shots.

The first attempt came just three minutes into the game on a 3-pointer from the wing. The shot missed and the sharpshooter didn’t take another for the remainder of the quarter.

Robertson opened up the second quarter with backto- back transition threes but didn’t pull the trigger again for over 20 minutes of game time.

That’s not to say the redshirt senior wasn’t getting involved.

The Golden Eagles just weren’t going to allow the Big 12’s career record holder for 3-pointers to get easy looks. When ORU missed a shot on the offensive end of the floor, the team quickly got back in transition to find Robertson and force the Sooners to go somewhere else with the ball.

Unfortunately for the Golden Eagles, Oklahoma has plenty of talented players to go to on offense and several newcomers got a chance to take over in the Sooners’ 10594 win over ORU Monday.

“Even from one game to the next, I think Taylor wasn’t worried about it,” OU head coach Jennie Baranczyk said. “I think Taylor wanted to win the game. They were really guarding her and we know that we have to establish things to get her open. Everybody is going to guard her, everybody finds her in transition and if we don’t have people run to the rim, we’re not going to get layups.”

Through the first quarter of the Sooners’ first game of the season, which included a program-record 38 points, it wasn’t Robertson or Ana Llanusa or Madi Williams who finished as the leading scorer.

It was freshman Kiersten Johnson.

A highly-touted four-star recruit from Texas, Johnson was expected to get minutes early in the season while the team figures out how to work her into an established, veteran squad. Johnson joined senior Liz Scott as the Sooners’ first substitutes in the game and was able to make an impact in the fast break.

Johnson scored on backto- back transition layups to extend Oklahoma’s lead to double digits, and went on to finish with eight points in the period on 4-of-5 shooting.

The freshman forward slowed down after the fast start and would finish with nine points on four of six shooting, but added two rebounds and two blocks in 13 minutes of action.

“I would love to challenge anyone in the country to have better senior leaders to be honest,” Baranczyk said. “I think they show up every day, I think they care about our freshmen ... (The freshman are) okay to mess up, because these guys can help fix it. and so I think getting them into that fire has been really good.

“You could see it with KJ, in that first half she just played. and then in the second half I think she started thinking about things a little bit too much. She got a few fouls and I had to put her down for a second. She’ll come back and she’s gonna be great.”

As the Sooners’ lead began to shrink in the fourth quarter, Robertson started looking to the rim more. Robertson scored seven of her 13 points in the fourth quarter and was an efficient four of six from the field and three of five from behind the arc.

Fellow freshmen Beatrice Culliton and Reyna Scott were also able to make an impact in their first career minutes. Scott played 14 minutes and scored four points on one of two shooting and had four rebounds and five assists.

Culliton played nine minutes and added two points to go along with six rebounds, including two on the offensive glass.

“Even from one game to the next I think Taylor wasn’t worried about it,” Baranczyk said. “I think Taylor wanted to win the game. They were really guarding her and we know that we have to establish things to get her open. Everybody is going to guard her, everybody, everybody finds her in transition and if we don’t have people run to the rim, we’re not going to get layups.”