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Instacap: Oklahoma State Spoils Senior Day for Kansas, Locks up 3 Seed in Big 12 Tournament

On an off night from Stailee Heard, Tenin Magassa led the Cowgirls with 20 and 16 while Micah Gray shouldered the burden on the perimeter.

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1 year ago

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[Devin Wilber/PFB]

The Cowgirls avenged their only home loss of the season, but it wasn’t easy.

No. 21 Oklahoma State defeated Kansas 57-51, a hard-fought road victory that spoiled the Jayhawks’ Senior Day.

Tenin Magassa matched a career-high with 20 points and grabbed a season-high 16 boards. Micah Gray added 17 points including four huge 3s as the Cowgirls finished their regular season with a win and now look forward to the Big 12 Championship in Kansas City.

The Cowgirls made a point to get into the paint early, which was good since they started 1-for-6 from 3. They were just 2-of-10 from deep in the first half and shot only 30% from the field. Kansas shot just 35% from the field and was 0-for-6 from deep at the break. OSU finished shooting 40% from the field and just 22% from beyond the arc. Fortunately, one Cowgirl was dialed in from deep.

OSU took the first quarter 15-7 but a late second-quarter surge by KU evened things up before OSU’s sharpshooter took the lead at the buzzer. OSU led by as many as 10 early in the second quarter but took a 22-19 lead into halftime. The Cowgirls started hot, making five of their first eight shots before finishing the half 7-of-23. Kansas flipped that, starting 5-of-20 before closing out the second quarter 5-of-8 and making its last three shots to tie it a 19 before Micah Gray drilled a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give OSU the lead heading into the locker room.

After a back-and-forth third quarter, the Cowgirls tried to pull away taking an eight-point lead early in the fourth, but the Jayhawks didn’t go down without a fight. They tied it on an and-0ne play by Nadira Eltayeb with three and a half to play. Gray knocked down a fadeaway 3-pointer, her fourth make from deep, to take a 54-51 less with 96 seconds to go.

Anna Gret Asi, on a slow night by her standards, finished with five points on 2-of-11 shooting. She split a pair of free throws to push the lead to 55-51 with 27 seconds to go. The Jayhawks missed their last four shots, and the Cowgirls held on to win it. Gray made a pair of free throws to ice it with five seconds left. OSU ended the game on a 6-0 run, five of those scored by Gray after her 3-pointer took the lead back for good.

Coming in you might have expected the perimeter matchup between the teams’ two leading scorers, Stailee Heard and S’Mya Nichols, but the game was fought between frontcourt players early.

Heard was 0-for-3 and scoreless in the first half and picked up two quick fouls. She started 0-for-5 from the field and didn’t score until the 8:42 mark of the fourth quarter. Heard finished with nine points on 3-of-8 shooting. Nichols scored seven in the first but banged knees late in the first half and headed to the locker room early. She returned and played 16 minutes in the second half but was obviously hobbled and didn’t score in the second half until the final six minutes of the game.

But both came to life in crunch time. Heard scored five points in the final two and a half minutes, and Nichols finished with 16 and scored seven of the Jayhawks’ final 11 points

In the absence of that epic guard showdown for most of the game, a pair of senior centers took the spotlight.

Jayhawks center Danai Papadopoulou got the start on Senior Day, and she made it count. In her first career start, Papadopoulou tied a career high with eight points and grabbed seven boards in a career-high 22 minutes. Unfortunately for her, she spent those minutes squaring up against Magassa.

Magassa was a huge factor for the second straight game, this time turning in season highs in points and rebounds. Magassa made an impact early, starting 3-for-4 from the field and scoring six in just four minutes of the first quarter. She finished with 20 points on 13 shots, grabbing 16 rebounds, and tying a season-high with six blocked shots. It was her second double-double of the season. She has five straight games with three blocks and has logged six blocks three times.

Gray began the second half with a made spot-up 3 just nine game seconds after her buzzer-beater to end the first. She made that go-ahead trey late and was the perimeter scoring punch OSU needed on an off night from both Heard and Asi.

The win just shows how versatile this team is. We’ve seen OSU win through the season when Heard or Asi or Gray are having an off night. That bodes well for a potential run in March.

With the win, and Kansas State’s loss at Iowa State, the Cowgirls finish their regular season 24-5, 14-4 in conference play and lock up the 3 seed in the Big 12 Tournament. As a Top 4 seed, OSU gets an automatic double bye for Wednesday and Thursday and will await their opponent on Friday in Kansas City. The de facto Big 12 regular season championship tips off with the top two teams, Baylor and TCU facing off in Waco Sunday night.

Game highlights, care of the Big 12.

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