UPDATES: WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
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BIG 12 WOMEN'S TOURNAMENT Texas A&M 62, Colorado 45 Iowa State 79, Nebraska 76 (OT) Oklahoma 67, Texas 58 Baylor 71, Kansas 54 OKLAHOMA CITY - Down by three points with 9.7 seconds left in regulation, Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly opted not to take a time-out. He already knew who would take the biggest shot of the Cyclones' season. Lyndsey Medders made Fennelly's decision look brilliant. Medders' season-high 27-point outing included the 3-pointer with 1.7 seconds left that forced overtime, and the Cyclones went on to edge Nebraska 79-76 in a Big 12 Conference women's quarterfinal game. Fifth-seeded Iowa State (24-7) advanced to play top-seeded and No. 13 Texas A&M in the semifinals on Thursday. Fourth-seeded Nebraska (22-9), like the Cyclones, likely is bound for the 64-team NCAA tournament. "That was obviously one of the best college games I've been a part of," Fennelly said of the third overtime game in the Big 12 tournament's 11-year history. "And obviously you feel for Nebraska. They played their guts out. It was a great game. I think it shows what Big 12 basketball is all about. "There's not a player in the country that I would trade for her," he said of Medders. "Not one." Danielle Page gave the Cornhuskers a 68-66 lead with a put-back with 1:11 left. Megan Ronhovde went 1-of-2 from the free-throw line with 48.7 seconds left to pull Iowa State within one before Page made two free throws with 9.7 seconds left to make it 70-67. Nebraska forward Nicky Wieben actually ended up dribbling the ball to midcourt before passing it to Medders, who had little time to get set before firing up the game-tying shot. "I knew there wasn't much time on the clock," Wieben said. "I tried going toward our hoop and Medders came in and helped me out a little bit. I decided to set a screen for her. "Worked out good." Medders, who finished 5-of-7 from 3-point range, said the shot felt good. "It wasn't diagrammed," she said. "We didn't have a time-out or anything. But we even made a perfect pass up the court and then an even better ball screen which freed me up to shoot the ball." Even after Medders' shot, there was the matter of overtime. Nebraska went ahead 72-70 on a basket by Danielle Page, but Medders put Iowa State ahead for good with a 3-pointer with 3:33 left. Medders went 4-of-4 from the free-throw line in the final 2:21 to maintain the Cyclones' slim lead. Her last two made it 79-76 with 26.6 seconds left. Nebraska's Kiera Hardy missed a 3-point attempt from the top of the key as the overtime buzzer sounded, denying the Cornhuskers a chance to match the school record for wins in a season. "The bottom line is in the regulation, Lyndsey just hits huge shots," Nebraska coach Connie Yori said. "She's a senior who has broken my heart on numerous occasions, and that was a big shot. We had a chance to go do some things in overtime, and we had our opportunities. And I thought we got tired, and made some mental mistakes defensively and they capitalized on them." Kelsey Griffin led Nebraska with 17 points and seven rebounds, while Page and Hardy scored 16 points apiece. Page also had eight rebounds. Iowa State and the Huskers split a pair of regular-season games. Medders, the Big 12's leader in assists, had four against Nebraska as well as four steals. She made all eight of her free throws. "She just makes that team go and she makes great decisions and she did it in regulation and she did it in overtime," Yori said. As a team, the Cyclones hit 11-of-20 3-point attempts, including a 4-for-5 effort from Alison Lacey. "Shoot it before you throw it away - that's what I tell them," Fennelly said. "Every pass is a turnover waiting to happen, and our kids can shoot." A 9-2 first-half run gave Nebraska a 30-20 lead, but consecutive 3-pointers by Lacey fueled a 10-2 Iowa State spurt that cut the Huskers' margin to 32-30.
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No. 11 Oklahoma 67, Texas 58: OKLAHOMA CITY - Courtney Paris broke free from Texas' defense to score 12 of her 17 points in the second half and lead No. 11 Oklahoma to a 67-58 win over the Longhorns in the Big 12 quarterfinals Wednesday night.
The All-America center also had 18 rebounds to notch her 61st career double-double, tying the Big 12 record set by Baylor's Sophia Young last season. It was the 56th consecutive double-double for Paris.
After getting only four shots in the opening half, Paris took five in the first 2 1/2 minutes after halftime. She made three in that span, and later added a three-point play to make it 42-26 as Texas suffered through an extended shooting drought after halftime.
The seventh-seeded Longhorns (18-14) missed their first 13 second-half shots and didn't make one until Earnesia Williams hit a jumper from the left wing with 12:39 to play. That cut the lead to 46-33 but didn't get Texas out of its funk.
Texas missed seven more shots and the second-seeded Sooners (24-4) piled on eight more points - including the final six from Ashley Paris, Courtney's twin - to push the lead to 54-33 with 10:12 remaining.
Carla Cortijo's 3-pointer from the right wing trimmed the deficit to 62-49 with 5:24 left, but the Longhorns didn't make another shot for 3 1/2 minutes. Texas outscored Oklahoma 8-0 in the final 1:43 to reach the final margin.
Ashley Paris ended up with 16 points, Jenna Plumley added 13 and Leah Rush had 10 for Oklahoma, which set a school record with 15 blocks.
Tiffany Jackson led Texas with 16 points, Cortijo scored 14 and Erneisha Bailey added 11.
The loss, which came one night after Texas coach Jody Conradt joined Tennessee's Pat Summitt as the only Division I coaches with 900, puts the Longhorns' NCAA tournament hopes in doubt.
Courtney Paris accepted the Big 12's player of the year award from commissioner Kevin Weiberg before the game, but there were few other highlights for her early on.
Texas crunched down on Paris whenever she touched the ball, but Oklahoma's outside shooters started out 5-for-6 from 3-point range and pushed the Sooners to a 15-8 lead after Plumley's 3-pointer from the top of the key.
Paris didn't get a shot off before taking a rest about 6 1/2 minutes in, and her first attempt was off an offensive rebound of Rush's miss with 9:15 left before halftime. Paris finally got on the board when she followed another Plumley 3 with a layup off a high-low feed from her sister just before the 8-minute mark in the first half.
Her free throw on Oklahoma's next possession made it 23-13. The Sooners led 33-26 at halftime.
Texas shot 25 percent (18-of-72) for the game.
No. 18 Baylor 71, Kansas 54: OKLAHOMA CITY - Bernice Mosby scored 12 points in 22 minutes as No. 18 Baylor won its Big 12 Conference women's tournament opener with a 71-54 victory over Kansas on Wednesday.
Baylor (25-6) has won its opening Big 12 tournament game in each of coach Kim Mulkey's seven seasons and has beaten Kansas (11-20) nine straight times.
The third-seeded Bears will play second-seeded and No. 11 Oklahoma in the semifinals on Thursday. Baylor has lost five straight games to the Sooners, including an 88-61 decision in Norman in the teams' regular-season finale on Feb. 28. But the Bears have reached the past two Big 12 tournament title games.
Eleventh-seeded Kansas, an upset winner over sixth seed Oklahoma State in the first round, couldn't continue a surprising late-season run during which the Jayhawks won five of their previous eight games entering Wednesday.
Baylor trailed only once, at 3-2. Kansas started the game by missing 14 of its first 16 shots and had a 7 1/2-minute drought, allowing the Bears to build an 18-6 lead with 8:32 left in the first half.
Kansas cut the margin to eight points twice, but Baylor answered with nine straight points and the Bears - who shot 53.8 percent from the field in the half - led 35-19 at halftime.
The Jayhawks got no closer than 12 points in the second half. Kansas coach Bonnie Henrickson received a technical foul with 12:28 left and the Jayhawks down 15. Within four minutes, the Baylor lead grew to 26 points.
The Lady Bears used mostly reserves in the final minutes, allowing their starters to rest.
Baylor had five blocked shots, giving the Lady Bears 233 on the season, breaking the Big 12 record of 232, set in 2005 by Texas Tech.
Baylor's 17-point margin of victory matched its largest this season against a Big 12 opponent.
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