KU Women's Basketball Falls At Big 12 Tournament
March 11, 2010
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KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Freshman Carolyn Davis scored a career-high 31 points on a nearly perfect 12 of 13 shooting night, but Kansas women’s basketball could not overcome No. 20 Oklahoma State and fell 76-69 in a hard-fought battle in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament Thursday.
Davis flirted with the Kansas single-game shooting record of 11 of 11 by Tracy Claxton in 1982, but had her 11th attempt blocked before making her final two shots and tying for the third-best night in KU history.
The Jayhawks trailed nearly the entire game and battled back to within 72-69 with 56.9 seconds left on the 100th career three-pointer by Nicollette Smith. However, OSU would score the game’s final four points to advance to Friday’s quarterfinal round.
Kansas dropped to 15-15 on the year, while Oklahoma State moved to 22-9 on the year. Davis recorded her fourth double-double of the season as she pulled down 11 rebounds.
While Davis was 12 of 13 shooting, the rest of her KU teammates were a combined 12 of 50. Krysten Boogaard, who made three of three shots, was KU’s next leading scorer with eight points in just eight minutes of play.
Oklahoma State was led by All-American Andrea Riley, who matched former Oklahoma Sooner Courtney Paris as the league’s all-time leading scorer. Riley scored 37 points on 10 of 30 shooting from the field and 12 of 17 from the free throw line.
After trailing 42-34 at halftime, Kansas quickly chipped away at the Cowgirl lead. The Jayhawks tied the game at 47 after a pair of old-fashioned three-point plays from Boogaard with 12:53 left.
After Riley missed a layup for OSU at the other end of the floor, KU came right back to gain its first lead since 2-0 when Davis made her seventh straight field goal attempt on a follow shot to put KU up 49-47 with 12:22 remaining.
Oklahoma State responded with a 7-0 run to go back up 54-49. Davis cut the margin to four points with a pair of free throws to make it 61-57, but OSU outscored KU 8-2 to lead 69-59.
That set up KU’s run which scared OSU before the Cowgirls held on for victory.
Davis, who was listed as day to day after suffering a concussion against Nebraska two games ago and missing the Texas A&M game, scored 14 of the Jayhawks’ first 21 points, including eight straight.
The 6-3 freshman reached double-figure points for the 11th time in her last 14 games. Davis made each of her first five field goal attempts, but did not take a shot after that for the last 7:45 of the half. She scored KU’s first basket of the second half and in fact made 10 straight before missing from the field.
Boogaard scored the game’s first basket on the opening possession, but the Jayhawks failed to score on four straight possessions. KU then scored on three straight trips down the floor only to find that every time the Jayhawks scored, OSU responded on its next possession.
After trading baskets, Oklahoma State went on a 9-3 run for the game’s biggest lead at 15-11 seven minutes into the contest. OSU would build up a six-point lead throughout most of the first half.
Kansas cut the margin down to one at 33-32 with 3:10 left behind the efforts of Aishah Sutherland, who scored six straight points. However the Cowgirls scored six straight points to go back up 39-32 heading into the final minute of play.
Monica Engelman drained a long jumper to make it 39-34 and give the Jayhawks what appeared to be great momentum heading into halftime. However, Riley, OSU’s All-American, had different plans, driving down and hitting a long three-pointer at the buzzer to give the Cowgirls a 42-34 lead at the break.
Oklahoma State will meet Iowa State in the quarterfinals of the tournament on Friday at 5 p.m. The game will be televised on FSN.
