Three Biggest Takeaways From Big 12 Women’s First Round NCAA Tournament Games
Here are three takeaways from Big 12 Conference women’s NCAA Tournament basketball games on Saturday, as the league’s remaining three teams were in action.
So what happened? Kansas did its own comeback act, Oklahoma outlasted the ASUN champ and West Virginia outlasted the Ivy League champ. Plus, the Big 12 went undefeated in the first round of the NCAA Tournament for the second time in three years.
Here are three takeaways on the day.
KANSAS RALLIES
There’s something about the west coast. On Friday night, Iowa State completed the second-biggest comeback in NCAA Tournament history, rallying from 20 down up in Palo Alto, Calif., to beat Maryland.
Down the coast in Los Angeles, Kansas was down 10 points to Michigan with six minutes left and rallied for a 19-9 run to tie the game on a Zakiyah Franklin 3-pointer with 12.1 seconds left. The iron was kind to Franklin, as the ball bounced three times on the rim before falling through.
In overtime, Kansas dominated and went on to win, 81-72, to advance to the second round on Monday.
Franklin had a terrific game, scoring 22 points. Three other starters had double figures — Wyvette Mayberry and S’Mya Nichols with 15 points each and Taiyanna Jackson with 14 points. The ball distribution was terrific. Every starter — including guard Holly Kersgieter — had at least three assists.
Kansas will face USC on Monday, a game that will pit a pair of top freshmen against one another — Nichols for Kansas and Juju Watkins for USC.
OU RESPONDS
Oklahoma needed everything to beat the best No. 12 seed in NCAA Tournament history, Florida Gulf Coast, as the Sooners won, 73-70.
FGCU led for most of the first three quarters and at times by double digits. But the Sooners kept chipping away and scored 40 points in the second half, led by Skylar Vann’s 24 points. The Big 12 Co-Player of the Year came up big for OU. Aubrey Joens and Payton Verhulst also had big baskets down the stretch.
One oddity here. Oklahoma started the game down 1-0 after it was assessed a technical foul before the game. Officially, it was called an administrative technical foul. It’s a rarity.
OU gets Indiana on Monday as the Sooners seek to make the Sweet 16 for the first time under coach Jennie Baranczyk.
‘PRESS’ VIRGINIA PRESSES ON
West Virginia was down 26-24 at the break. The usual pressure defense wasn’t quite doing the trick for the Mountaineers. So they ratcheted it up, went to the trap and got the results they wanted.
The Mountaineers forced six Princeton turnovers in a 3:30 span and took a seven-point lead as they went on a 10-3 run to start the third quarter and outscored the Tigers 18-7 in the third quarter to eventually win, 63-53.
JJ Quinerly had another huge game for the Mountaineers. She scored 29 points, grabbed seven rebounds, dished out two assists and had three steals. Three other Mountaineers had at least two steals.
But the turnovers were the story. The Mountaineers are one of the best in the country at forcing turnovers and by game’s end the Mountaineers forced the Tigers into 21 of them.
West Virginia faces Caitlin Clark and Iowa on Monday. One thing to watch is WVU’s free-throw shooting. The Mountaineers missed (18) as many as they made on Saturday. If they get those kind of chances against Iowa, they must cash in.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
