KU women aim for back-to-back Big 12 upsets

By Matt Tait     Jan 22, 2014

John Young
The Kansas bench erupts in celebration as the Jayhawks pull ahead of Baylor in the second half of their game, Sunday at Allen Fieldhouse. The Jayhawks beat the no. 7 Baylor Bears, 76-60.

Two days after one of the biggest upsets in school history, the Kansas University women’s basketball players and coaches still were talking about beating No. 7 Baylor.

To be fair, they were asked about it. A lot. And they certainly did not mind rehashing the day they came back from 11 down in the first half to win by 16 in the second, ending the Bears’ 53-game Big 12 Conference winning streak. But the Jayhawks’ focus had shifted to tonight’s almost-as-tough matchup against No. 8 Oklahoma State, at 7 p.m. at Allen Fieldhouse.

“That’s great,” KU coach Bonnie Henrickson said of the team’s victory over Baylor. “But, my thought for the day would be, ‘If what you did yesterday still looks good today, you haven’t done much today.’ We gotta keep moving. What we can take from that is confidence, not complacency.”

In Oklahoma State (16-1 overall, 5-1 Big 12), Kansas (9-9, 2-4) welcomes a second consecutive team with a standout point guard.

OSU floor leader Tiffany Bias and Baylor’s Odyssey Sims are not the same players in terms of style, but both are the focal points for KU’s defense.

“She’s different in that they’ve got some experienced players around (her),” Henrickson said of Bias, a 5-foot-6 senior who is three assists shy of 700 for her career and five points shy of 1,400 career points.

Added KU junior Natalie Knight of facing Bias and Sims in back-to-back games: “They both are excellent point guards. Tiffany likes to push the ball more in transition. Again, for both of them, it’s a team defense. We’re all gonna have to guard her, not just one person.”

Despite being swept by the Cowgirls last season and having lost three consecutive games in the series, KU owns a 31-27 all-time advantage over Oklahoma State. Kansas has a 13-11 edge in Allen Fieldhouse and is 9-6 against OSU under Henrickson.

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Written By Matt Tait

A native of Colorado, Matt moved to Lawrence in 1988 and has been in town ever since. He graduated from Lawrence High in 1996 and the University of Kansas in 2000 with a degree in Journalism. After covering KU sports for the University Daily Kansan and Rivals.com, Matt joined the World Company (and later Ogden Publications) in 2001 and has held several positions with the paper and KUsports.com in the past 20+ years. He became the Journal-World Sports Editor in 2018. Throughout his career, Matt has won several local and national awards from both the Associated Press Sports Editors and the Kansas Press Association. In 2021, he was named the Kansas Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. Matt lives in Lawrence with his wife, Allison, and two daughters, Kate and Molly. When he's not covering KU sports, he likes to spend his time playing basketball and golf, listening to and writing music and traveling the world with friends and family.