Kansas women rally but fall short in first round of Big 12 tournament

Brandon Schneider’s Jayhawks showed fight, but they couldn’t overcome the third quarter.

The Kansas women lost 79-75 to Oklahoma State on Friday in the first round of the Big 12 women’s tournament at Chesapeake Energy Arena, ending their season on a six-game losing streak.

Down 67-52 midway through the fourth quarter, KU went on a 12-0 run to narrow the deficit, but the score got no closer than three points down the stretch.

Oklahoma State outrebounded Kansas 53-24.

Oklahoma State, the tournament’s seventh seed, used a pair of 7-0 runs in the third quarter to create distance that the 10th-seeded Jayhawks couldn’t erase.

Kansas’ second season under Schneider included improvement, as KU (8-22) won a pair of regular season conference games after going winless in league play a year ago outside of its tournament victory against TCU.

Kansas guard Jessica Washington, the Big 12 Newcomer of the Year, led the Jayhawks with 18 points on Friday night, going 10 for 10 from the free-throw line.

Oklahoma State (17-13) took a 32-29 lead into the locker room in the second half and outscored the Jayhawks 24-16 in the third quarter.

Oklahoma State plays Texas, the No. 2 seed, at 6 p.m. Saturday in the quarterfinals.

This story was originally published March 3, 2017 at 11:14 PM with the headline "Kansas women rally but fall short in first round of Big 12 tournament."