With a nail-biting ending for a spot in the Big 12 Championship final, No. 2 seeded Texas women’s basketball defeated No. 3 seeded Kansas State 71-64.
A somewhat level game through all 40 minutes got uncomfortably close for Texas in the last five minutes.
Texas held the lead almost the entire game, but, with four minutes left on the clock, Kansas State junior guard Brylee Glenn gave the Wildcats its first lead from the three-point line. Tied at 61-61, senior guard Shay Holle attempted a three-pointer. Nothing but net. Texas led 64-61. Seconds later, Holle added two more points, the go-ahead basket.
Kansas State called a timeout and the Texas bench hugged their teammate with pride and the biggest smiles seeing those could have been the game winning points. And they were. The lifelong Longhorn’s points were key in earning her team a spot in the Big 12 Championship final.
Kansas State senior center Ayoka Lee scored 21 points in the teams’ first meeting in January when the Wildcats gave the Longhorns their second loss of the season. Injured for a month, Lee didn’t play the second game at Texas, and her team, then ranked No. 2, fell short. In the semifinal match, Lee showed how crucial she is for the team, scoring 10 points only in the first quarter, nearly reaching 20 points by half and 25 points at the end. Lee was a unanimous All-Big 12 First-Team selection.
After a close start to the first quarter, Texas widened its lead in the last minutes of the period and maintained it in the second, despite being outscored by two points by Kansas State. The Wildcats went on a 6-0 run in the last three minutes of the half, but the Longhorns went into halftime with an eight point lead as graduate guard Shaylee Gonzales and junior forward Aaliyah Moore led the team with eight and nine points.
Sophomore forward Ndjakalenga Mwenentanda scored her third three-pointer of the season on top of a two-pointer. Her second three-pointer, coincidentally, was in February against Kansas State. Mwenentanda also had three rebounds in the game.
Freshman forward Madison Booker only had six points in the first half after getting into foul trouble early, but came back strong in the second. Five minutes into the third quarter, the Big 12 Player of the Year had already equaled her points from the first 20 minutes of the game. Booker finished the game with 17 points and put the team on her back to stay competitive.
Texas will play Iowa State, who defeated top seeded and regular season champions Oklahoma to clinch a championship final spot, on March 12 in Kansas City. Texas will await its NCAA Tournament fate on Selection Sunday on March 17.
