Addy Brown’s 41 points punctuate Day 2 of the Big 12 tournament

The No. 14-seeded Red Raiders took down No. 6 seed Utah to continue their magical run in the tournament. Now the lowest-seeded team remaining, Texas Tech will move on to face No. 3 Oklahoma State in Friday’s nightcap.

The Red Raiders’ second-straight upset rounded out another day of exciting action at the T-Mobile Center in downtown Kansas City, Missouri.

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Addy Brown from downtown

No. 7 seed Iowa State made its 2025 Big 12 tournament debut with a win over the 15th-seeded Arizona State Sun Devils.

Coming into the game, it was sophomore center Audi Crooks who ASU viewed as the most troublesome Cyclone. However, by the time the game clock hit triple zeros, sophomore forward Addy Brown was the one who buried ASU with a career-high 41 points.

“Tonight just happened to be my night and I took advantage of that,” Brown told media postgame. “And you wait on moments like that, and I think my teammates were excited for me and they were finding me in the right places.”

Brown was locked in from the opening tip and finished the first quarter with 13 points. Three of her five made 3-pointers came in the first 10 minutes. She hit back-to-back long-range shots to give Iowa State the lead early. All three of her 3-pointers in the quarter were part of a 2:06 stretch in which the Cyclones hit four threes in a row.

Once ASU ran her off the line, Brown took advantage of every defender the Sun Devils put in front of her inside the arc. It didn’t matter if it was a guard, a forward, someone 6’7 or 6’1, Brown made every player look like a mismatch.

“I try and score at three levels,” Brown said. “I got the three going early. So they were quick to step out there, and I felt like I had the mismatch inside, and we ran some plays for that, and I was able to score off those too.”

Brown’s 41 points were the third-most ever in a Big 12 tournament game. Additionally, it was the most points scored by an Iowa State player since 1984. It didn’t help the Sun Devils that they also put Brown at the free-throw line 11 times where she converted 10 shots.

In total Brown was 13-for-23 from the field and 5-for-9 from deep. She was the offensive catalyst that Iowa State needed in order to keep its tournament run going and bring ASU’s season to an end.

“I will give her her just due,” ASU head coach Natasha Adair said. “She had a heck of a game. At this level, there are elite players on the floor. … I’m never going to shy away from a player who had a phenomenal night.”

Big 12 youth movement

As just a sophomore, Brown set the pace for Iowa State in its first matchup of the tournament. And she wasn’t the only underclassman to provide a crucial boost to her team.

In the opening game of the day, Kansas State sophomores Zyanna Walker, Taryn Sides and Imani Lester combined for 29 points to help the No. 5 seed Wildcats to the 80-65 win over No. 13 UCF. With 13 points, Walker finished as the team’s second-leading scorer Thursday.

“Felt good [to see shots go in],” Walker told media Thursday. “[I’ll do] whatever I can do to help my team win. And today it was being more aggressive, getting to the basket and getting to my spot and making the right read at the right time.”

The trio also contributed over a third of the team’s 36 rebounds, with Walker and Sides wrestling down five each. In 30 minutes on the court, Sides had the highest +/- for Kansas State, posting a +21 en route to the victory.

In Game 2, No. 9 Colorado needed even more youth to edge out No. 8 Arizona 61-58. Freshman Tabitha Betson and redshirt freshman Kennedy Sanders led the way with 16 and 14 points, respectively. Betson was the only Buffalo starter to finish with a positive +/- and led the team in rebounding in addition to scoring. 

Sanders, along with freshman forward Grace Oliver played the entire fourth quarter. Betson played all but one minute in the final frame. Colorado entered the final 10 minutes of play down by 10, but a 3-point shot by Sanders at the 5:24 mark allowed the Buffaloes to overtake the Wildcats. Although Colorado had to wrestle the lead back several minutes later, the poise that Sanders, Betson and Oliver played with down the stretch is one of the primary reasons Colorado will have the opportunity to face No. 1 seed TCU on Friday.

“If we count Kennedy as a freshman … we basically had three freshmen and two seniors out there for a large part of the fourth quarter,” Colorado head coach JR Payne said. “One of the ESPN reporters said, ‘Your freshmen just became sophomores.’ … For these guys to play in such big moments in a big game and to do what they did was remarkable.”

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Even the senior-heavy team of No. 11 Texas Tech saw key contributions from a pair of sophomores in Jalynn Bristow and Loghan Johnson. Bristow added six points on two made threes, while Johnson was a solid presence on the floor in her 23 minutes of play, finishing with a team-high +14.

Their contributions helped the Red Raiders upset No. 6 Utah 75-64 in the tournament’s second round.

“I thought Loghan was tough tonight. She understood her role and how we wanted to attack,” Texas Tech head coach Krista Gerlich told media Thursday. “I thought she was great off the bounce. I thought she was really good on defense, obviously, and I am proud of the maturity that she is showing and growing on the court.

“Jaylynn Bristow came in and she was shaky. … But when we put her back in late, and she hit that big three, it was huge. Really big for her. We need her to be consistent and to play minutes because she is a really talented individual.”

Thursday’s young standouts will have another chance to show out tomorrow with their teams advancing to the quarterfinal rounds — where the top four seeds will finally enter the fray.