Cowgirls Struggle with No. 4 Baylor as Jim Littell Era Ends
The good news is that former Oklahoma State women’s basketball head coach Jim Littell has so many pleasant memories and success stories that he will hopefully be able to erase Friday afternoon’s Big 12 Women’s Championship quarterfinal against No. 4-ranked Baylor out of his mind. The Lady Bears came out and shut the Cowgirls out in the first quarter 23-0. It was the first time Baylor had ever shut out a Big 12 opponent in a quarter.
Oklahoma State missed every first-quarter shot taken, turned the ball over seven times, and even missed two free throws in finishing with the goose egg in the first quarter.
“We got punched pretty good early and didn’t respond. Feel bad for our kids that we ended this way,” Littell said. “We spent a lot of energy and emotion last night and we would have hoped — I know all of them wanted to respond more, but proud of our group and we played a lot of young kids this year.”
Littell deserved a better ending, but you can be sure he was very happy his team beat Texas Tech emphatically on Thursday night. Texas Tech had been a thorn in his side and Vivian Gray transferring to Tech was a sour situation. Littell pulled the Cowgirls program through a tough time when Littell’s best friend and then Cowgirls head coach Kurt Budke and another assistant, Miranda Serna, were killed in a plane crash during a recruiting trip in November 2011.
Littell led the Cowgirls to a 22-12 record and won the WNIT that season playing all NIT games on their home floor in Gallagher-Iba. Littell took the program , then took them to six NCAA Tournaments over the next 10 years and two sweet sixteen finishes. Last season Littell was voted Big 12 coach of the year after the Cowgirls went 19-9 and advanced to the second of the NCAA tourney, losing to eventual national champion Stanford.
This season after two transfers and being caught without enough talent, the Cowgirls sank to 9-20 and earlier this week it was announced that by “mutual decision” Littell would not return as head coach next season.
Baylor was led by another former Cowgirl that transferred as Ja’Mee Asberry had 16 points and Queen Egboh and Na’Lyssa Smith each had 15 points. Baylor outshot Oklahoma State 46 percent to 22 percent from the field and outrebounded the Cowgirls 42-36. Oklahoma State turned the ball over 17 times.
Oklahoma State's leading scorer on the season Lauren Fields went 0-for-11 from the field and finished without a point, while Kassidy DeLapp led the Cowgirls with nine points.
Baylor advances to play Oklahoma in the Big 12 semifinals on Saturday.