Cougars fall to Jayhawks 77-53 in Big 12 Championship Second Round

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The 10th-seeded BYU Cougars fell to the 7th-seeded Kansas Jayhawks 77-53 in the second round of the Phillips 66 Big 12 Women's Basketball Championship at the T-Mobile Center on Friday night. 

"Obviously it's not the way we wanted it to turn out, but hats off to Kansas. They are a really good team, they kept battling and they have a lot of weapons," said BYU head coach Amber Whiting. "When Woolston went down in the second quarter, it changed our game plan from what we had going. That was hard to recover from but at the end of the day, I am really proud of my women for fighting the whole 40 minutes and doing what they do."

Box Score

The Cougars led after the opening quarter and trailed by two at the break. Amari Whiting and Kailey Woolston combined for 20 of BYU's 33 first-half points, going a combined 8-for-10 from the floor with Woolston knocking down all of her three attempts from behind the loop. 

On the final play of the opening quarter, Woolston sustained a knee injury that kept her out for the rest of the game. In the second half, the Jayhawks held BYU to 28 percent shooting and just 1-of-9 from behind the arc en route to the 24-point win.

Whiting led the Cougars with 13 points on 6-of-10 shooting while grabbing four rebounds, three assists and two steals. Lauren Gustin notched her 30th double-double of the season which leads the NCAA with 10 points and 17 rebounds, seven of which came on the offensive glass. 

First Quarter

After Kansas took a 7-0 lead just 2:13 into the opening quarter, back-to-back triples by Woolston followed by a steal and finish by Whiting gave BYU an 8-7 lead just three possessions later. Kansas’ Taiyanna Jackson scored six of the first 11 points for KU who held an 11-10 advantage with 4:42 to play in the first.

Out of the media timeout, Whiting hit a floater in the lane to retake a 12-11 lead before Woolston hit her third three of the first quarter and Davenport knocked down a floater to take a three-point lead at 18-15. With a free throw made by Whiting, BYU took a 19-17 lead into the second quarter.

Second Quarter

The Cougars opened the second with two-straight stops and consecutive scores to extend the lead to 23-19 with 7:21 left in the half. After a Jayhawk bucket, Whiting found Rose Bubakar for a transition three to take a five-point lead.

After a Lauren Davenport three gave the Cougars a six-point lead with 3:16 left in the half, Kansas went on a 10-0 run to take a four-point lead.

With 15 seconds left in the half, Emma Calvert grabbed the rebound off of a Jayhawk miss from the line and kicked out to Whiting who went the length of the floor and scored off the glass to end the run and cut the deficit to two heading into the half.

Third Quarter

Kansas opened the third quarter with an 11-3 run, hitting 5-of-6 field goals to take a 10-point advantage with 5:06 remaining. Whiting ended the 2:43 scoring drought with a driving floater in the lane to cut the deficit to eight.

The Jayhawks scored six straight points following the Whiting bucket to take a game-high lead of 14 with 3:32 to go in the third before Gustin scored off the glass followed by a score from Calvert and a left-corner triple from Bubakar to draw within 11 heading to the fourth quarter.

Fourth Quarter

The Jayhawks opened the fourth with 11-straight points to blow the game open and lead by 22 points with 6:02 remaining. The first BYU points of the fourth came on a driving layup by Davenport which she converted into a three-point play with the ensuing foul shot.

Davenport’s three-point play sparked a 7-2 run for the Cougars with two free throws from Kaylee Smiler and a second-chance layup from Gustin. The score by Gustin marked her 10th point of the game and her 30th double-double of the season which leads the NCAA.

The Jayhawks scored the final five points in BYU’s 77-53 loss to Kansas.