Saturday night, No. 2 Oklahoma rolled into Lawrence with a 17-game winning streak, a large contingent of crimson and cream-clad supporters and a team as talent-rich and skilled as any in the country.

Yet, unexpectedly and against general consensus, Saturday’s game wasn’t another Boomer Sooner highlight tape as has been the case many times this season. Instead, the lesson from Kansas’ 69-54 loss is one the Jayhawks have experienced before: another chance at victory, another chance missed.

Photo Gallery

Kansas Women's Basketball vs. Oklahoma

A photo gallery of the women's basketball game against Oklahoma Saturday night.

“We’ve certainly missed opportunities,” coach Bonnie Henrickson said. “We’ve missed opportunities to pick up victories. We’ve played well in stretches and, in stretches, I couldn’t have been more proud of how tough we’ve been and how we’ve battled. But we have to string halves together.”

In nearly every facet of the game, Kansas competed equally with Oklahoma. The Jayhawks grabbed more offensive rebounds, committed fewer turnovers and received more points from their bench.

But against Oklahoma, Kansas made just 26 percent of its shots, including an almost unimaginable 19 percent in the first half. Without a doubt, those numbers represent the reason the Jayhawks lost.

“We did everything well, we just couldn’t knock down shots,” junior guard Sade Morris said. “I think if we knocked down shots, we could have won that game.”

To focus solely on Kansas’ shooting problems on Saturday night, though, disregards a bigger problem — one that Henrickson dissected in her postgame press conference.

In losses this season — Texas, Texas A&M and Marquette to name a few — Kansas has kept the score close, giving every indication a victory is forthcoming. But, in too many cases this season, the Jayhawks have experienced a subpar stretch of play or a crippling trend, namely turnovers or untimely poor shooting, that has led to a loss.

“We’ve got to play consistently from half to half and everybody has to show up,” Henrickson said. “We’ve let a few slip away. Those are games you look at as must-wins and gotta-wins and we haven’t gotten it done.”

As much as any women’s basketball conference in the country, the Big 12 is unforgiving and relentless. Kansas’ recently completed three-game stretch serves as a perfect example: at rival Missouri, at No. 13 Texas and No. 2 Oklahoma at home.

Still, the frustrating part for Henrickson and the Jayhawks is not that the competition is that much better; it’s that Kansas has been consistently in games only to consistently let chances slip away in a seemingly different way each game.

“We’ve been through games where we’ve shot 60-some percent on the road, but then we turn it over,” Henrickson said. “Then, we’ve gotten ourselves in foul trouble on the road and not turned it over.”

Saturday night, an unimpressive shooting night left Kansas with its third consecutive loss. On several occasions, Oklahoma rattled off unanswered scoring runs simply because Kansas failed to make a shot.

For the Jayhawks, no player shot better than 38 percent.

“It felt like there was a lid on the rim tonight,” junior forward Danielle McCray said. “We just couldn’t get the point blank shots to go down. We just didn’t shoot the ball well at all.”

Indeed, many of Kansas’ attempts were either open shots or close to the basket. Throughout the game, though, the Jayhawks routinely missed, remaining in the game because of scrappy defense and free throws.

Still, Henrickson said the attitude and mindset hasn’t changed. Kansas has shown its capable of competing with the best teams in the conference. Now, the Jayhawks must show they’re capable of defeating those teams.

“We’ve got to keep fighting,” Henrickson said. “I mean, these kids aren’t down. You wouldn’t walk into our practice and think everyone is trying to jump off the ship. It’s not that. We’ve just got to continue fighting and competing every day in practice.”

— ­— Edited by Realle Roth