{"id":80121,"date":"2024-03-19T21:30:51","date_gmt":"2024-03-20T02:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/?p=80121"},"modified":"2024-03-28T22:18:51","modified_gmt":"2024-03-29T03:18:51","slug":"kansas-womens-basketball-blows-by-byu-in-big-12-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/2024\/03\/19\/kansas-womens-basketball-blows-by-byu-in-big-12-tournament\/","title":{"rendered":"Kansas Women\u2019s Basketball Blows By BYU in Big 12 Tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"

Charlie Krupski | @Charlie_Krupski<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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Kansas convincingly defeated BYU in their opening game of the Big 12 tournament Friday evening by a score of 77-53. The highly anticipated third matchup of the year between the two teams proved to be exciting, but Kansas was able to make better adjustments and pull ahead in the second half.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Kansas and BYU traded blows early. Kansas opened on a 7-0 run, but BYU responded with an 8-0 run of their own, thanks to two quick transition three-pointers from freshman guard Kailey Woolston. The focus of the match was going to be the game in the paint, with two of the best paint players in the country going head-to-head in BYU senior forward Lauren Gustin and Kansas super senior center Taiyanna Jackson. Unfortunately for both teams, they both picked up an early foul and had to check out.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The game was playing quickly, with both teams getting out and running, as well as knocking down their shots. Senior guard Wyvette Mayberry knocked down a triple to put the Jayhawks back in front, but Woolston connected on her third of the game in response. The two teams were playing fast, and Kansas was getting beaten in transition.<\/span><\/p>\n

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At the end of the first, BYU led 19-17, and freshman phenom guard S\u2019Mya Nichols was held to just one point, but senior guard Zakiyah Franklin was up to 6 points, which was just the start to her big night.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Coming out of the break, the game seemed to slow down for both teams. They both packed the paint with bodies and forced jumpers. Neither team, however, wanted to take the open shots and kept driving through the traffic.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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BYU stayed hot from three with another make from junior guard Lauren Davenport, putting them at 5-7 from deep to start. Zakiyah Franklin wasn\u2019t going to let Kansas slip behind, however. Trailing 31-25, Franklin continued to drive to the hoop and finish through contact. Franklin got a layup to go, then got fouled on the next possession and made both free throws.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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After a floater from the free throw line fell for super-senior guard Ryan Cobbins, Franklin again got a tough layup to fall, and Kansas led by 3. Super senior guard Holly Kersgieter then got a steal and got fouled on her drive to the hoop. Kansas was on their own scoring run to end the half.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Freshman guard Amari Whiting got a very difficult layup to fall to end the half, but the Jayhawks took the lead 35-33. Unfortunately, Kailey Woolston suffered a knee injury and would not return, ending 3-3 from beyond the arc.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Jayhawks made significant adjustments at halftime, and starting the second half, came out like a completely new team. They had limited the Cougars’ transition game and took them completely out of rhythm.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Additionally, Kansas came out hot on offense. Kersgieter knocked down a fantastic corner three, and Taiyanna Jackson got more involved offensively, scoring multiple layups. The only thing that seemed to be keeping BYU in the game was Lauren Gustin, who leads the country with 15.4 rebounds per game and continually created second chances with offensive rebounds.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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With Woolston on the bench, the Cougars offense was out of sync. They became ice cold from three. BYU would go on to finish the game 6-18 from three after starting 5-7. Zakiyah Franklin continued to dominate in the third quarter, with one of the first plays being a steal into a transition basket, and one. On the flip side, S\u2019Mya Nichols’s slow start continued. She was able to get a steal, but then immediately turned it back over and committed a foul of her own.<\/span><\/p>\n

BYU\u2019s offensive woes continued when they traveled on the drive, and they quickly took a timeout to try and break the Jayhawks’ momentum. The lead had grown to a 44-36 Jayhawk lead. The only bright spot for the Cougars was Lauren Gustin, who continued to grab offensive rebound after offensive rebound and keep the game within reach.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Kansas continued their dominating run through the third quarter and capped it off with a sensational Zakiyah Franklin crossover into an up-and-under layup to increase the lead to 54-40 and put Franklin up to 20 points.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Entering the fourth quarter, Kansas could taste a quarterfinal berth, leading 56-42, and S\u2019Mya Nichols wanted to put it completely out of reach. She opened her fourth-quarter scoring by getting downhill fast and putting a sensational spin move on her defender to extend Kansas\u2019 lead to 15. She then scored again on the next possession, and then Cobbins put Kansas up 20 with a three-point play.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Wyvette Mayberry put the icing on the cake with a dagger three to keep Kansas up 70-50 with only four minutes to play. With 2:23 left, Kansas emptied their bench and let their starters get a few minutes of rest.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Kansas won behind a stellar performance from Zakiyah Franklin, who had 20 points. Franklin also led the Jayhawks last time out against BYU with 24 in their second matchup. All five of Kansas\u2019s starters reached double-digit points.<\/span><\/p>\n

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BYU had a great offensive performance from Woolston before she left, and Lauren Gustin kept them in the game the entire time with 17 total rebounds, including seven on the offensive side. Gustin outrebounded the next closest player, Jackson, by a full ten rebounds.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Kansas head coach Brandon Schneider touched on how important it was to take away the transitional offense of the Cougars: \u201c[the transition game] was a big emphasis and it always is for us. It was a bit frustrating that we gave up a few transition threes early\u2026we had to discuss that and do a better job and just locate 10 in particular because she really got going early.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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When asked about how Kansas will prepare for #6 Texas tomorrow Schneider gave them recognition but also touched on how much his team has improved since the last time they played: \u201cWe are not even close to being the same team that we were in early January and I give our players a lot of credit for growing and improving. With that being said, Texas is Final Four\/National Champion good, led by a freshman that\u2019s just having an incredible year. So a very difficult challenge\u2026\u00a0 hopefully we\u2019re a little bit better and can be more competitive tomorrow evening.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Kansas will take on that very challenging Texas team that gave them trouble earlier in the season tomorrow evening, Saturday, March 9th, in the Big 12 quarterfinals. The game is set to tip off at 5:30 C.T. at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City and will be streamed live on ESPN+.<\/span><\/p>\n



<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Charlie Krupski | @Charlie_Krupski   Kansas convincingly defeated BYU in their opening game of the Big 12 tournament Friday evening by a score of 77-53. The highly anticipated third matchup of the year between the two teams proved to be exciting, but Kansas was able to make better adjustments and pull ahead in the second half.\u00a0   Kansas and BYU traded blows early. Kansas opened on a 7-0 run, but BYU responded with an 8-0 run of their own, thanks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":80122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3262,610],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-sports-articles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/nick-sunflower-showdown-.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80121"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80123,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80121\/revisions\/80123"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}