By Kyle Charters
Asst. Sports Editor

For the first time in nearly two seasons, the Boilers may have begun to doubt themselves. And as a result, they were upset 76-74 by Oklahoma in the second round of the NCAA tournament on Monday in Mackey Arena.

The fifth-seeded Sooners (25-7) trailed by as many as 17 points in the first half, before staging a second-half rally that sent them to the Sweet 16 in Richmond, Va.

Senior Michelle Duhart said as Oklahoma made its comeback, the No. 4-seed Boilers (23-8) could sense the momentum shifting away from them.

"It just happened," said Duhart, who had four rebounds and two points in her final game. "We were up (17) and we had no answer, and we couldn't stop them on defense. I don't know what happened. It just slipped away.

"I think we just started doubting ourselves when they kept cutting into the lead," she said.

Leading-scorer Katie Douglas, however, didn't want to blame the Boilers' collapse on a lack of confidence. She gave credit to the Sooners.

"I think they just wanted it a little more than we did," said Douglas, who scored four points on 1-of-11 shooting. "They're a great team and they played a great game (Monday night). We just didn’t come up with the big plays when we needed to."

While the Boilers' confidence may have wavered during the game, the Sooners' hope in a possible comeback did not. Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale said Dartmouth's second-half rally against Purdue on Saturday in the opening game of the tourney made her team believe it could make a similar comeback.

"We said, 'Hey, if Dartmouth can come back, we can come back too,'" said Coale.

Oklahoma All-American Phylesha Whaley said even when the Sooners were down by 14 points with 16:21 left in the game, they still thought they could win.

"We kept playing hard," said Whaley, who had 11 points and eight rebounds for Oklahoma. "We had nothing to lose. Either play hard or go home."

With Oklahoma playing hard and cutting into Purdue's lead, Duhart said the Boilers got a little sluggish.

"(And that's) not a good time for people to get sluggish, but I think we did," said Duhart. "The team's going to be great next year and I think they learned a lot from this game."