K-State and Kansas take down ranked teams on Big 12 opening day, business as usual for Baylor

K-State’s Brittany Chambers. Photo: Cheryl Vorhis

While it was business as usual for No. 1 Baylor on opening night of Big 12 conference play as the Lady Bears beat Missouri 90-46, upsets set the tone in other contests around the league.

Texas A&M at Kansas State, perfect night for Dickey

Kansas State (10-3, 1-0) continued its winning ways against Texas A&M, defeating the defending national champion and No.9-ranked Aggies in overtime, 71-69. K-State’s win in Manhattan gave the Wildcats five straight Big 12 home opener victories.

After only scoring two points in the first half, Brittany Chambers got hot and finished with 21 on the night. Three other Wildcats earned double digits. Tasha Dickey scored 17 and shot a perfect 6-of-6 on the night and 3-of-3 at the free-throw line. She was also 2-of-2 from the three-point line. She fouled out with 1:41 remaining in regulation.

Jalana Childs scored 16 points and pulled down four rebounds and Mariah White added 12 points and a career-high 11 assists for her first career double-double.

Texas A&M (9-3, 0-1) had three players reach double digits in scoring led by Tyra White with 17. Sydney Carter added 16 and Kelsey Bone had a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds.

“I am extremely proud of our basketball team,” said K-State head coach Deb Patterson. “I think we lined up against one of America’s finest programs tonight and fought extremely hard from the tip to the finish. Defensively, it is a very tough Texas A&M team to have to find ways to produce offense and often a tough challenge this year for our basketball team. Tonight, we really grew off of the experiences that our non-conference provided. Individually, and as a team, I feel like it was our best night in terms of our offensive decisions and chemistry out there on each position on the floor. We are extremely excited and extremely proud of just the balance that we brought to the floor tonight.”

Kansas at Texas

Kansas (12-1, 1-0) left Austin with a 72-67 victory spurred by season-high performances from juniors Monica Engelman and Angel Goodrich. The Jayhawks dominated the No. 23 Longhorns for much of the contest, leading by as much as 23, and staved off a late Texas (10-3, 0-1) surge.

It was the first win for Kansas against Texas in four meetings and their first win in Austin since 2007. It was also the first Big 12 opener victory for Kansas since the 2005-06 season.

“I knew we needed to come out strong and aggressive, said junior Monica Engelman. “That was the gameplan between my teammates and I, and we just wanted to get the first win.”

Late in the game, Texas rallied to get within two points in the last 15 seconds of the game. But free throws and a block from senior Aishah Sutherland helped the Jayhawks come out on top. She finished with 10 points.

“I thought we were really good early,” said Kansas head coach Bonnie Henrickson. “ Out of the locker room and starting the game we had great poise and composure, toughness, and unselfishness, which we have been all year. We grew the lead, and we knew they were going to make a run.”

Angel Goodrich led KU with 22 points plus seven rebounds. Engelman scored a season-high 19 and pulled down eight rebounds. Fellow junior Carolyn Davis had 16 points and 10 rebounds.

Texas started making its push to narrow their deficit with less than eight minutes left in the game.

“Their run came at the eight-minute mark,” said Henrickson, “but we expected it and anticipated it coming out of the locker room after halftime. It was important for us to answer to it and limit their run. Texas got aggressive, and we became kind of passive and I’ll take the blame for that. We didn’t want a lot of shots, we wanted to eat the clock. They forced turnovers and made shots and thank goodness the game wasn’t 41 minutes, it was only 40. We were able to regain a little poise and composure and knock down some free throws to put it to out of reach. We’ve got to get better at shooting free throws. I give Texas credit for making a run and making a game of it in the end.”

Texas coach Gail Goestenkors remarked on her team’s effort.

“Watching it, I felt like the passion, the intensity, the focus that you need to play just didn’t seem to me like it was there early on. I saw it the last 10 minutes, and that’s who we need to be and play like for 40 minutes.”

In other games, Oklahoma beat Iowa State 80-51 in Norman and No. 13 Texas Tech defeated Oklahoma State 58-53 in Lubbock.

Big 12 Opening Day Results

• Kansas State 71, Texas A&M 69 OT (Manhattan, Kan)
• Baylor 90, Missouri 46 (Waco, Texas)
• Texas Tech 58, Oklahoma State 53 (Lubbock, Texas)
• Oklahoma 80, Iowa State 51 (Norman, Okla.)
• Texas 67, Kansas 72 (Austin, Texas)