Kansas women beat Columbia 66-59, win WNIT championship

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Taiyanna Jackson had 17 factors and career-high tying 21 rebounds — her fourth consecutive double-double and twenty third of the season — Zakiyah Franklin added 19 factors and Kansas beat Columbia 66-59 Saturday to win the WNIT championship.

Chandler Prater added 9 factors, 11 rebounds and 4 steals for Kansas (25-11) and Wyvette Mayberry scored 12 factors. The Jayhawks completed with their most wins for the reason that 1997-98 workforce that additionally gained 25 video games and set a program report for house wins in a season with 19.

This season Kansas made its first look within the AP High 25 in almost a decade after the Jayhawks — who gained 21 video games final season and superior to the NCAA Event for the primary time since 2013 — set a program report with 10 consecutive wins to open the season.

Columbia (28-6) struggled offensively in opposition to the size and athleticism of the Kansas protection. The Lions, who went into the sport ranked No. 13 nationally in scoring offense (78.8 per recreation) and No. 12 in rebound margin (plus-8.5), have been held to fewer than 60 factors for simply the third time this season and outrebounded (49-41) for simply the fourth time.

Franklin scored eight straight Kansas factors in a 12-5 spurt that gave the Jayhawks a 29-25 lead — the most important by both workforce to that time — with a minute to go within the first half. After Kitty Henderson hit a 3 for the Lions, Chandler Prater’s jumper made it 31-28 at intermission. Henderson hit a 3-pointer, Abbey Hsu made a jumper and Jaida Patrick added one other 3 within the first 68 seconds of the third quarter to place Columbia forward by 5 earlier than a 15-0 spurt gave Kansas the lead for good.

Columbia missed 10 consecutive subject objectives and made simply certainly one of its subsequent 15 from the sector after Patrick’s 3 and Kansas by no means trailed over the ultimate 18 minutes.

Hsu led the Lions with 19 factors and Kaitlyn Davis scored 13. Hsu completed the season with 606 factors, two shy of this system report set by Camille Zimmerman in 2016-17.

Jackson had three blocks to increase her single-season Kansas report to 109.

Columbia is the primary workforce in Ivy League historical past to advance to the WNIT’s championship recreation. Final yr, the Lions have been the primary workforce in convention historical past to make it to the Nice Eight, the place they fell to Seton Corridor, 78-75.

Columbia’s 28 wins this season are a brand new program report, three greater than the earlier report set final yr when the Lions went 25-7.

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AP ladies’s school basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25