Advertisement

Kansas women’s basketball upsets No. 7 Baylor for Big 12 Conference victory

Kansas women's basketball head coach Brandon Schneider jokes with his team during media day photos in October inside Allen Fieldhouse.
Kansas women's basketball head coach Brandon Schneider jokes with his team during media day photos in October inside Allen Fieldhouse.

LAWRENCE — Kansas women’s basketball earned its first Big 12 Conference win of the season Wednesday with its 87-66 conference victory against No. 7 Baylor.

Although the Jayhawks (8-7, 1-3 in Big 12) trailed at the end of the first quarter, they battled back to tie the score by halftime. After a strong third quarter, they went into the fourth quarter with a commanding 16-point lead.

Baylor (14-1, 3-1 in Big 12) wasn’t able to recover from that deficit.

“We talked about how this presented the opportunity to be a turning point moment for us,” Kansas coach Brandon Schneider said in a KU release. “Not only are they celebrating the win, they are celebrating and having fun. Win or lose, we have got to have more fun, and I thought we had some outstanding individual performances that needed to be celebrated.”

Jayhawks super-senior center Taiyanna Jackson led the way with a 27-point, 19-rebound double-double. That gives her 35 career double-doubles and helped her become the 32nd player in program history to eclipse 1,000-career points. She was joined in double figures scoring by freshman guard S’Mya Nichols (22 points), super-senior guard Holly Kersgieter (19 points) and super-senior guard Zakiyah Franklin (11 points).

Next up for Kansas is a 6:30 p.m. Saturday home contest against Oklahoma State (10-5, 3-1 in Big 12). The game is set to be broadcast on ESPN+.

RELATED: Kansas football star running back Devin Neal announces he’ll return in 2024 with Jayhawks

RELATED: Kansas football class of 2025 commitment tracker: Jayhawks continue to build for future

RELATED: Kansas basketball’s loss at UCF could prove costly in Big 12 Conference championship race

Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas women’s basketball upsets No. 7 Baylor for Big 12 victory