‘A lesson we’ll have to learn from’: Kansas State claws past Houston women’s basketball following late on-court brawl

With 6:38 remaining in the game, graduate forward Amirah Abdur-Rahim and sophomore forward Jenessa Cotton tussled at a held ball call near the baseline. 

That tussle ensued into a dramatic brawl that saw Abdur-Rahim among four players ejected for Houston women’s basketball, in its late 71-62 loss to Kansas State Wednesday night at Fertitta Center.

“It’s just a really, really difficult mistake to make,” coach Matthew Mitchell said. “It really hurts our basketball team. It’s a lesson we’ll have to learn from, I’m very sad that it happened and there’s no place for it.”

In Mitchell’s eyes, not only did the ejections hurt Houston’s chances to close the game in gifting senior guard Tess Heal six free throws to grab Kansas State a firm-holding lead, but it also left the Cougars without three of their starters available for their next game, per NCAA rules on fighting. 

The ejections included Abdur-Rahim, Kansas State’s Cotton, graduate guard Briana Peguero and senior guard TK Pitts due to their involvement in the altercation. Redshirt senior guard Kyndall Hunter was also ejected for leaving the bench area.

Pitts posted a team-high 16 points on 7 of 9 shooting, with 12 of the points coming in the first half, helping to give Houston its first lead heading into the break of a Big 12 contest on the season at 37-26. 

That halftime lead quickly fell grim, however, as seven turnovers led to Houston being outscored 19-8 in the third quarter, also cutting what was once a plus-6 turnover margin in half. 

Despite finishing minus-4 on the glass, the Cougars still managed to narrowly finish plus-1 in turnovers, marking the second time in Big 12 play they finished with a positive margin. In forcing 12 first-half Wildcat turnovers, they provided the sole ray of light Mitchell acknowledged in describing “a tale of two different situations.”

“I think up to the point of us losing our composure and getting into that altercation, I think you’ve seen the growth of our basketball team,” he said. “We were very disruptive; we made it very difficult for them in the first half.”

But Heal’s 25-second-half points were the difference in Kansas State overcoming a deficit as large as 14. When added with the Cougars shooting just 36% from the floor and 4-for-26 from 3-point range on the night, it left them still seeking their first Big 12 win under Mitchell after four league games.

Heal’s 31 points off the bench for the Wildcats made for her first 30-point performance since her sophomore campaign at Santa Clara in 2023-24. 

Up next, the Cougars, at 6-9 overall and presumably without Abdur-Rahim, Pitts and Peguero for a game, will close their two-game homestand by taking on BYU Saturday, Jan. 10 at 1 p.m. in Fertitta Center.