Kansas City, Mo. ? They didn’t shoot so good, they didn’t rebound so well and they didn’t play such great defense during their season from hell.

Still, Kansas, the worst team in Big 12 Conference women’s basketball history, went out on a positive note Tuesday.

No. 13-ranked Texas survived a couple of late scares and escaped with a 63-61 triumph over the 0-for-2002 Jayhawks in the first round of the Big 12 Conference tournament.

“Even though it was a loss,” said senior KC Hilgenkamp who ended her college career with a team-high 17 points, “I loved the way we fought and played.”

So did Marian Washington who didn’t sound like a coach who had just seen her team drop its 17th straight game to finish with a 5-25 record.

“I am so proud of our ball club,” Washington said. “It would have been easy to come in here and bow to them, but they showed tremendous character.”

A week earlier, Texas had skunked the Jayhawks, 61-46, in Allen Fieldhouse, but this time Kansas raced to a 28-14 lead after 13 minutes and  unlike many times during their 0-16 league season  they didn’t collapse.

Texas did come back and grab leads of as many as eight points in the second half, but the Jayhawks broke their fold mold and hung tough.

Three times with under a minute remaining, KU had an opportunity to tie the score. The first was a three-point attempt by Selena Scott with :58 showing and Texas on top, 62-59.

“It felt so good. It went in and came out,” Scott said. “I don’t know why it didn’t go down. KC thought it was in and so did I.”

Recalled Hilgenkamp: “I was jumping up and down and starting to the other end of the floor.”

Hilgenkamp would suffer the same fate with about 10 seconds remaining. Her attempt at a game-knotting three was a virtual carbon copy of Scott’s.

“I honestly thought it was in,” Hilgenkamp said. “It was just a shame it didn’t go in.”

Still, some good came of it because the errant shot bounced right to teammate Sharonne Spencer who horsed the ball back in and was fouled to bring Kansas within a point (62-61) with :07.8 showing.

But Spencer, following an icing timeout called by Texas coach Jody Conradt, was short on her potential game-tying free throw. That meant KU had to foul and Kala Bowers nailed one of two charities with :03.1 remaining. After that, all Kansas had time for was a hopeless heave by Katie Hannon.

Bowers finished with a career-high 23 points, mainly because she drilled all four of her three-point attempts.

“Bowers got away from us and that really hurt us,” Washington said.

Also, the Jayhawks couldn’t prevent the Longhorns’ Stacy Stephens from matching a career-high with 17 rebounds.

Nevertheless, Kansas had been down so long that a two-point loss was an upper. Until Tuesday, the closest the Jayhawks came to winning during the regular conference season was seven points.

“Nobody expected us to even come close,” said Scott who bowed out against her hometown school  she’s from Austin, Texas  with 16 points and a career-high seven steals, “but everybody was so positive.”

Notes: KU’s first win next season will be its first in 2002. the Jayhawks’ last victory came against Morgan State on Dec. 29, 2001. Â Texas shot only 34.9 percent, but outrebounded KU, 46-34. The Jayhawks shot 42.1 percent. Â Big 12 officials estimated the Municipal Auditorium crowd at 4,652, but busloads of students left after the first game and the KU-Texas crowd was closer to 1,000. Â