The Big 12 women’s basketball teams moved into the fourth round of league action on Wednesday, with eight games across the country.
Wednesday’s game results included:
No. 11 TCU 80, Kansas 73
No. 17 West Virginia 89, Texas Tech 53
No. 12 Kansas State 71, No. 22 Utah 47
Oklahoma State 64, Cincinnati 48
Baylor 81, Arizona 76 (OT)
Iowa State 90, Arizona State 83
BYU 89, Houston 75
Colorado 81, UCF 62
The Big 12’s fifth round of league action begins on Saturday with all 16 teams in action.
Here are five takeaways from the latest day of women’s basketball action.
Best Game
Easily Baylor at Arizona. At one point the Bears led by 17 points. But the Wildcats came storming back. And it almost didn’t go to overtime.
Arizona’s Isis Beh scored a layup to tie the game in the final seconds at 69-all. Baylor’s Jada Walker drew a foul with a second left and made two free throws. But, after the Wildcats took a time out to advance the ball, Beh slipped open on a backdoor screen for a layup to tie the game and send it to overtime.
In overtime, the game went back and forth until Baylor’s Darianna Littlepage-Buggs made a lay-up with 1:41 left and didn’t give up the lead after that. The Bears won in their first visit to Tucson.
Littlepage-Buggs has been a double-double machine of late, as she finished with 15 points and 11 rebounds, one of four Bears to finish in double figures. Arizona’s Breya Cunningham also had a double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds. Beh led with 18 points and had six rebounds.
Best Performances
Iowa State’s Emily Ryan had a great night, with 16 points, eight rebounds and four assists. Arizona State’s Jalyn Brown scored 20 points off the bench for the Sun Devils. Kansas’ S’mya Nichols scored 24 points in a loss.
West Virginia’s Jordan Harrison had a perfect night at the free-throw line (12-of-12) as she finished with 20 points. Oklahoma State’s Stailee Heard blew up again, with 21 points and 13 rebounds against Cincinnati. Colorado’s Frida Formann scored 22 points. Houston’s Kierra Merchant scored 23 points in a loss, including six 3-pointers.
But TCU’s Sedona Prince won the day, finishing with 30 points and 14 rebounds, along with three blocked shots, against Kansas.
Most-Needed Win
BYU. The Cougars had to have this one. The Cougars were one of three winless teams in the conference entering action and they were facing Houston, which was one of the other two.
The difference is that BYU had a winning record entering the game and just a couple of weeks ago was on the NCAA Bracketology bubble. It could not afford to lose this game if it had any hope of sliding into the NCAA Tournament.
BYU grabbed a 10-point lead after the first quarter and nurtured it the rest of the way. It received great games from Emma Calvert (21 points, seven rebounds) and Amari Whiting (20 points, seven rebounds, five assists).
Worst Loss
For a Top 25 matchup, the Kansas State-Utah game didn’t carry much drama. Utah found itself blown out on its own floor and short-handed without guard Kennedy McQueen, who was hurt against Iowa State. Fortunately, she appears to only have a high ankle sprain after an injury that looked much worse.
Kansas State’s Ayoka Lee had 14 points to reach 2,450 for her career, which moves her into the top 100 career scorers in NCAA history.
But, for Utah, this wasn’t the kind of showing it wanted against one of the league’s contenders. It’s the Utes’ only shot at Kansas State — at least until Kansas City.
Bracketology Update
Before the games started on Wednesday, I checked out ESPN’s Bracketology. They’re moving to twice-a-week updates and Tuesday was their most recent update. The Big 12 had seven seeds:
Kansas State: No. 3
TCU: No. 4
West Virginia: No. 5
Utah: No. 6
Oklahoma State: No. 7
Baylor: No. 8
Iowa State: No. 11 (First Four)
Iowa State was one of the last four teams in. There are no Big 12 teams on the bubble.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
