Kansas Jayhawks women’s basketball awaits NCAA seed after losing Big 12 Tournament opener
The fifth-seeded Kansas women’s basketball team couldn’t bottle up a strong start, falling to fourth-seeded (and 21st-ranked) Oklahoma 80-68 in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Tournament on Friday afternoon.
Now, the Jayhawks will await their name being called on Selection Sunday for the first time in nearly a decade.
“There’s a lot of things that can be celebrated with this group, whether it be the team or in particular individuals,” KU coach Brandon Schneider said afterward. “But I know that it stings today, and hopefully that will be fuel for not wanting to feel this very quickly in the NCAA Tournament.”
KU couldn’t have asked for a much better beginning Friday, as following an Ioanna Chatzileonti jumper, the Jayhawks led 13-3 in the game’s first three minutes while starting the contest 5-for-6 from the floor.
That hot shooting wouldn’t last. KU made just 2 of its final 14 attempts in the half, falling behind 45-32 as Oklahoma began to dominate the boards while getting its three-point shooting going.
The Sooners had 12 offensive rebounds in an up-tempo first half to the Jayhawks’ one, while also firing away unabashedly from three, making 8 of 24 perimeter tries in the first half alone.
“I thought OU played with a lot more juice than us in the first half,” Schneider said. “You just can’t give a team 35 extra possessions. You get outrebounded 14 just in the first half, give up 18 offensive rebounds for the game ... that’s not a formula for winning.”
Zakiyah Franklin led KU with 15 points. Taiyanna Jackson added eight points, 12 rebounds and six blocks while also setting a new KU single-season record with 90 rejections.
KU, 20-9 overall, will learn its NCAA Tournament path at 7 p.m. Sunday during the women’s selection show. The Jayhawks, who will be making their first NCAA appearance since 2013, are a projected 9 seed in ESPN’s latest bracketology.
This story was originally published March 11, 2022 at 2:10 PM.
