The way she played Tuesday, it appeared she wants to pad that stat.

Jackson scored a game-high 19 points in 36 minutes in helping prolong the Jayhawks’ season with a 66-56 victory over Oklahoma State at Municipal Auditorium.

The victory set up Kansas’ quarterfinal meeting at noon today with top-seeded, No. 7-ranked Oklahoma.

“Coming in, we knew we had to be real focused,” said Jackson, who has played 3,863 minutes in her career, surpassing the 3,841 minutes played by Kay Kay Hart from 1988-92. “Obviously, we have to win the tournament to get into the big dance, and that’s what we want to do. Everyone from the starters to the red-shirt freshmen came in committed to play.”

The starters, especially, came ready to play. KU’s three final-year players seniors Jackson, Jaclyn Johnson and Brooke Reves, and junior Nikki White, who won’t return for her senior year scored all but 13 of Kansas’ points against the eighth-seeded Cowgirls (14-14).

Johnson, who had just one point in an eight-point loss in the teams’ last meeting, had 18 points and seven rebounds before fouling out. Reves added 12 points and nine boards, and White had four points and seven rebounds for the ninth-seeded Jayhawks (12-16).

“We had good practices last week,” said Johnson, who suffered a sprained ankle early in the second half of a 63-51 loss in January in Stillwater, Okla. “It gave us renewed energy, and we played hard. We came in expecting to win.”

And they still do.

“Our mindset is, we came here to win it,” Johnson said. “When we win this tournament, it’s not going to be a surprise to us.”

Kansas’ stifling defense took most of the surprise or at least most of the suspense out of Tuesday’s game.

KU led almost the entire first half and held OSU without a field goal for 61/2 minutes just before the break.

Okie State took its only second-half lead, 29-28, with 17:34 left, but Kansas responded with two runs of 10-0 each to pull away.

“We expected them to make their runs,” Jackson said. “They didn’t want their season to end, but neither did we.”

Kansas held OSU to 31.1-percent field-goal shooting and hit its first 14 free throws. KU hit 44.6 percent of its field goals and finished 15-for-18 from the free throw line.

“We knew we had to step up defensively,” Johnson said. “We did a good job today, and we need to do the same thing against Oklahoma.”

The Jayhawks think they can play even better defense if they stay out of foul trouble. Reves, Jackson and Johnson all played much of the fourth quarter with four fouls. Johnson fouled out with 31/2 minutes left.

“I got saddled with four fouls pretty early,” Jackson said. “So did Brooke. And Jack had four fouls from the tipoff. Maybe we had to give a layup to stay in the game. Maybe we kept our hands in our pockets on some plays we might have gone for early.”

Regardless, the Jayhawks were aggressive enough to force another makeup game today. The Sooners (24-4) had a hand in a bit of ignominious Kansas history earlier this season. KU’s 88-64 loss on Jan. 24 was the most lopsided loss in Allen Fieldhouse in Kansas women’s basketball history.

“They put a whipping on us in Allen Fieldhouse,” Johnson said. “It was like they knew what we were going to do before we did. But we’re going to do our best. We’re going to fight.”

Tuesday’s game was Kansas’ first-ever Day One appearance in the Big 12 tournament. Every year since the formation of the Big 12, KU has earned a first-round bye.

“It was different,” Jackson said. “We think maybe it’s a good-luck charm. We don’t have to worry about first-game jitters now. Ask us after Saturday’s game if we liked playing in the first round.”

Today’s winner will play in a semifinal at 5 p.m. Thursday. The championship game will tip off at 7 p.m. Saturday.