Michigan State Women’s Hoops Falls To Oklahoma Sooners, 77-71

Oklahoma's Raegan Beers (15) goes up for a basket as Michigan State's Grace Vanslooten (14) defends during a second-round game in the NCAA women's basketball tournament between the Oklahoma Sooners and Michigan State Spartans at Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Okla. , Sunday March 22, 2026. | SARAH PHIPPS/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images I said two things ahead of Michigan State’s matchup with Oklahoma.

First, the Spartans needed to play much better than they did against Colorado State. And second, that we were going to have our hands full with the Sooners’ center, Raegan Beers. Both of those things ended up being the case.

MSU coach Robyn Fralick made the decision to alter the starting five, sitting 5’8” guard Rashunda Jones, who only had one point in Friday’s victory, and starting 6’3” Isaline Alexander. The thought process was to give MSU more height and to not allow Grace VanSlooten to exert too much energy on defense trying to slow down Beers. That strategy turned out to be short lived as Alexander got herself in early foul trouble and also seemed out of sorts on the offensive end.

By game’s end, she only played 7 minutes. No worries, though. Rashunda Jones came in off the bench and immediately made her presence known.