Heal’s Final Ride
Jan 12, 2026 | Women's Basketball, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
Three days have passed since Tess Heal came off the bench to score a season-high 31 points, including a Kansas State record 21 points in the fourth quarter, and just a couple days have passed since the native Australian signed her first professional basketball contract, and only one day has passed since Sara Heal flew 9,171 miles from Melbourne, Australia to Manhattan to hug her daughter and watch her play a game during her senior season.
And now, here we are, and the 21-year-old Heal, who has done much traveling of her own over the past four years — from Melbourne to Santa Clara to Stanford to K-State — sits in her white K-State jersey and behind a backdrop at a postgame news conference Saturday evening at Bramlage Coliseum. The 5-foot-10 guard came off the bench again to pour in a game-high 25 points on 11-of-13 shooting from the floor, marking the latest excellent performance by K-State's fiery leader and physical playmaker who absorbed bump after bump while almost willing the Wildcats from a 19-point deficit to a four-point hole before time ran out on a 80-73 loss to Utah.
Every day is precious to Heal, along with every game, every practice, every drive, every shot, and every trip down the basketball court, because time is running out, you see — yes, time is running out on what could become one of the more remarkable one-and-done stories in the history of K-State women's basketball.
"This is really the last ride for me," Heal says. "It was a tough decision to transfer. It's always a risk. You leave a lot behind and make some sacrifices, which I did, but I wanted to come to a program with the legacy and excellence of K-State.
"It's my responsibility to continue that excellence and legacy."
Heal ranks third on the team with 9.4 points per game on 50% shooting (51-of-102) from the floor, including 34.2% (13-of-38) on 3-pointers to go along with 58 total rebounds, 22 total assists, and 18 total steals in 18 games with eight starts and 23.6 minutes per outing.
But it's her past four games that the former two-time All-West Coast Conference First Team selection in 2023 and 2024 has shined like K-State head coach Jeff Mittie knew she would when Heal signed with K-State after playing more a spot-up shooter role at Stanford last season.
She is averaging 22.3 points on 64.4% (29-of-45) shooting from the floor, including 43.8% (7-of-16) on 3-pointers and 92.3% (24-of-26) from the foul line. After scoring 17 points against Cincinnati, Heal scored 16 points against West Virginia. Then she went off for 31 points against the Cougars before her 25 points against the Utes.
"She's got that right mentality," Mittie says. "We've got to continue to get the right matchup for her, but she's a crafty scorer. She's done it in her career, did it at Santa Clara and wasn't as big of a scorer at Stanford before she came here, but she knows how to play and competes on every possession and certainly she's given us a big lift."
During the Wildcats' furious fourth-quarter rally against Utah, Heal backed into guard LA Sneed along the left baseline, pounded the ball once, then twice to the inside, then fell backward and used her body control while pushing the ball to the basket from eight feet out, drawing the foul on Sneed. The ball touched the glass and slowly fell through the hoop as Heal hit the deck and was surrounded by celebrating teammates.
Moments later, Heal backed in against guard Maty Wilke, spun around inside the lane, and hit an improbable layup.
"The way they were playing it allowed me to go one-on-one a lot," Heal says. "In the first half they crammed the paint. In the second half, I could take advantage of one-on-one matchups."
Last Wednesday, Heal almost single-handedly took advantage of Houston. She scored 21 points in the fourth quarter to set a K-State single-quarter record for scoring.
K-State trailed 53-49 with 6:38 left in the fourth quarter when Jenessa Cotton pulled in an offensive rebound that resulted in a held ball in favor of K-State. Following the whistle, two Houston players threw punches at Cotton. Upon review, four Houston players were ejected along with Cotton. K-State was awarded six free throws, and Heal made all six attempts to give K-State a 55-53 lead. Then on the ensuing possession, Heal drained a midrange jumper to make it 57-53. Moments later, Heal hit a 3-pointer for a 61-55 lead to cap a 12-2 scoring run. When Houston used a 4-point play to slice K-State's lead to just 61-59, Heal answered with a layup and then two more free throws for a 65-59 advantage with less than 3 minutes remaining. Heal went 10-of-10 from the foul line in the fourth quarter alone.
"Honestly, I didn't even know I had 21," Heal says. "All I cared about was getting past Houston and I'm so glad we did."
Heal's fourth-quarter scoring barrage harkened Mittie back to when All-American Ayoka Lee scored a NCAA Division I record 61 points against Oklahoma on January 23, 2022.
"Twenty-one points in a quarter has never been done in K-State history, which surprises people because we have a player who's the NCAA record-holder in points in a game, but at Houston it felt like Heal was scoring a lot because we needed every single bucket," Mittie says. "It felt like she was scoring every time down the floor. Yokie scored so effortlessly throughout that game against Oklahoma — Yokie had 32 points at halftime, but it felt like 20. With Tess, it felt like a lot of buckets. It was like, 'Wow, those were 21 tough points, critical buckets.'
"It was pretty special to watch. She kind of wills her way. She's not only scoring with skills and craftiness, but she's scoring with a tough-minded approach. Pretty special."
K-State assistant coach Staci Gregorio Foss spotted that potential long ago. Foss contacted Heal on Instagram in April — two days after Heal announced her desire to transfer from Stanford. The contact got the wheels turning. Although Heal's cellphone was "blowing up" with inquiries from other schools, she opted to journey to the Flint Hills to conclude her college career.
The journey to the Little Apple began long ago — and it gained steam almost immediately. Tess's parents, Travis and Sara, put a basketball into her hands at age 7. Then she played in an under-8 basketball league, and she was the only girl on the team. She made her first state team and represented Victoria at age 11. ("I thought, 'Maybe I can go somewhere with this,'" she says.) Then she played on the national team. ("Representing the Green and Gold was an incredible honor," she says.) At age 16, she began playing with 30-year-olds and WNBA All-Stars. She starred for Victoria Metro at the U18 Grand Final of the Australian Junior Championships. She captained the team at three Junior National Championships, winning two gold medals and one silver. She attended the inaugural Junior NBA Championships in 2018 to represent Asia-Pacific and finished fourth overall. Her on-court resume spans the length of a basketball court.
Basketball runs strong in her blood. Her father is a veteran basketball coach in Australia; her uncle, Shane Heal, is an Australian basketball legend; and her cousin, Shyla, was a first-round selection by the Chicago Sky in the 2021 WNBA Draft.
Heal always knew she wanted to play basketball in the United States. Her parents have followed her every step of the way.
"My mom flew in last night, so she's here for this game, which was really special for me," Heal says after playing Utah. "I don't get to see them a lot, so it was really nice to have her here. I talk to dad pretty much every single day. He's been my birth coach. He'll have a lot to say about this game, for sure. It was really nice to have mom in the stands today."
Heal left Santa Clara after two seasons with 1,225 total points, an 18.6-point scoring average, and 296 assists. She joined Caitlin Clark in shooting at least 45.0% and averaging 18.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists in 2022-23 and 2023-24. She was named to the 2023 WCC All-Freshman Team and was a two-time All-WCC First Team selection in 2023 and 2024.
Last season, Heal was the only player in Division I to shoot at least 50% from the floor and 45% from 3-point range. But her sky-high numbers from Santa Clara took a hit, as she averaged 8.0 points, 2.0 rebounds and 1.2 assists. She had a season-high 24 points at Wake Forest on January 26.
And now she's proven herself to be a leader and go-to scorer for the Wildcats, 9-9 overall and 2-3 in the Big 12 Conference, who are the third-youngest women's basketball team in Division I.
"It's a mentality," Heal says. "I've definitely been more aggressive. In the first half of the season, I was a bit more passive than I have been. I looked in the mirror and said, 'I needed to get back to how I was at Santa Clara, when I was a point guard, leader and scorer. This team needs me to score and create and what I can do offensively.' That's what I've tried to embody in the past few games."
It was during a quiet Wednesday afternoon on the Stanford campus last May that Heal, preparing for final exams, took a moment to put her decision to join K-State into perspective.
"I'm so excited to be able to get back to playing Tess Heal basketball and to do that at K-State," she said into her cellphone.
And Tess Heal basketball has hit Manhattan. And there's still plenty of opportunities ahead for her to shine in the Big 12 season.
"Tess Heal basketball? It's gritty, it's getting downhill, getting to the rim, it's being physical," she says. "I was much better today against Utah at absorbing the contact. It's effortful. It's going to look like different things on different nights."
She pauses.
"Ultimately," she says, "it's being tough as nails, as my dad would say."
And Dad must be so proud.
Three days have passed since Tess Heal came off the bench to score a season-high 31 points, including a Kansas State record 21 points in the fourth quarter, and just a couple days have passed since the native Australian signed her first professional basketball contract, and only one day has passed since Sara Heal flew 9,171 miles from Melbourne, Australia to Manhattan to hug her daughter and watch her play a game during her senior season.
And now, here we are, and the 21-year-old Heal, who has done much traveling of her own over the past four years — from Melbourne to Santa Clara to Stanford to K-State — sits in her white K-State jersey and behind a backdrop at a postgame news conference Saturday evening at Bramlage Coliseum. The 5-foot-10 guard came off the bench again to pour in a game-high 25 points on 11-of-13 shooting from the floor, marking the latest excellent performance by K-State's fiery leader and physical playmaker who absorbed bump after bump while almost willing the Wildcats from a 19-point deficit to a four-point hole before time ran out on a 80-73 loss to Utah.
Every day is precious to Heal, along with every game, every practice, every drive, every shot, and every trip down the basketball court, because time is running out, you see — yes, time is running out on what could become one of the more remarkable one-and-done stories in the history of K-State women's basketball.
"This is really the last ride for me," Heal says. "It was a tough decision to transfer. It's always a risk. You leave a lot behind and make some sacrifices, which I did, but I wanted to come to a program with the legacy and excellence of K-State.
"It's my responsibility to continue that excellence and legacy."
Heal ranks third on the team with 9.4 points per game on 50% shooting (51-of-102) from the floor, including 34.2% (13-of-38) on 3-pointers to go along with 58 total rebounds, 22 total assists, and 18 total steals in 18 games with eight starts and 23.6 minutes per outing.
But it's her past four games that the former two-time All-West Coast Conference First Team selection in 2023 and 2024 has shined like K-State head coach Jeff Mittie knew she would when Heal signed with K-State after playing more a spot-up shooter role at Stanford last season.
She is averaging 22.3 points on 64.4% (29-of-45) shooting from the floor, including 43.8% (7-of-16) on 3-pointers and 92.3% (24-of-26) from the foul line. After scoring 17 points against Cincinnati, Heal scored 16 points against West Virginia. Then she went off for 31 points against the Cougars before her 25 points against the Utes.
"She's got that right mentality," Mittie says. "We've got to continue to get the right matchup for her, but she's a crafty scorer. She's done it in her career, did it at Santa Clara and wasn't as big of a scorer at Stanford before she came here, but she knows how to play and competes on every possession and certainly she's given us a big lift."
During the Wildcats' furious fourth-quarter rally against Utah, Heal backed into guard LA Sneed along the left baseline, pounded the ball once, then twice to the inside, then fell backward and used her body control while pushing the ball to the basket from eight feet out, drawing the foul on Sneed. The ball touched the glass and slowly fell through the hoop as Heal hit the deck and was surrounded by celebrating teammates.
Moments later, Heal backed in against guard Maty Wilke, spun around inside the lane, and hit an improbable layup.
"The way they were playing it allowed me to go one-on-one a lot," Heal says. "In the first half they crammed the paint. In the second half, I could take advantage of one-on-one matchups."
Last Wednesday, Heal almost single-handedly took advantage of Houston. She scored 21 points in the fourth quarter to set a K-State single-quarter record for scoring.
K-State trailed 53-49 with 6:38 left in the fourth quarter when Jenessa Cotton pulled in an offensive rebound that resulted in a held ball in favor of K-State. Following the whistle, two Houston players threw punches at Cotton. Upon review, four Houston players were ejected along with Cotton. K-State was awarded six free throws, and Heal made all six attempts to give K-State a 55-53 lead. Then on the ensuing possession, Heal drained a midrange jumper to make it 57-53. Moments later, Heal hit a 3-pointer for a 61-55 lead to cap a 12-2 scoring run. When Houston used a 4-point play to slice K-State's lead to just 61-59, Heal answered with a layup and then two more free throws for a 65-59 advantage with less than 3 minutes remaining. Heal went 10-of-10 from the foul line in the fourth quarter alone.
"Honestly, I didn't even know I had 21," Heal says. "All I cared about was getting past Houston and I'm so glad we did."
Heal's fourth-quarter scoring barrage harkened Mittie back to when All-American Ayoka Lee scored a NCAA Division I record 61 points against Oklahoma on January 23, 2022.
"Twenty-one points in a quarter has never been done in K-State history, which surprises people because we have a player who's the NCAA record-holder in points in a game, but at Houston it felt like Heal was scoring a lot because we needed every single bucket," Mittie says. "It felt like she was scoring every time down the floor. Yokie scored so effortlessly throughout that game against Oklahoma — Yokie had 32 points at halftime, but it felt like 20. With Tess, it felt like a lot of buckets. It was like, 'Wow, those were 21 tough points, critical buckets.'
"It was pretty special to watch. She kind of wills her way. She's not only scoring with skills and craftiness, but she's scoring with a tough-minded approach. Pretty special."
K-State assistant coach Staci Gregorio Foss spotted that potential long ago. Foss contacted Heal on Instagram in April — two days after Heal announced her desire to transfer from Stanford. The contact got the wheels turning. Although Heal's cellphone was "blowing up" with inquiries from other schools, she opted to journey to the Flint Hills to conclude her college career.
The journey to the Little Apple began long ago — and it gained steam almost immediately. Tess's parents, Travis and Sara, put a basketball into her hands at age 7. Then she played in an under-8 basketball league, and she was the only girl on the team. She made her first state team and represented Victoria at age 11. ("I thought, 'Maybe I can go somewhere with this,'" she says.) Then she played on the national team. ("Representing the Green and Gold was an incredible honor," she says.) At age 16, she began playing with 30-year-olds and WNBA All-Stars. She starred for Victoria Metro at the U18 Grand Final of the Australian Junior Championships. She captained the team at three Junior National Championships, winning two gold medals and one silver. She attended the inaugural Junior NBA Championships in 2018 to represent Asia-Pacific and finished fourth overall. Her on-court resume spans the length of a basketball court.
Basketball runs strong in her blood. Her father is a veteran basketball coach in Australia; her uncle, Shane Heal, is an Australian basketball legend; and her cousin, Shyla, was a first-round selection by the Chicago Sky in the 2021 WNBA Draft.
Heal always knew she wanted to play basketball in the United States. Her parents have followed her every step of the way.
"My mom flew in last night, so she's here for this game, which was really special for me," Heal says after playing Utah. "I don't get to see them a lot, so it was really nice to have her here. I talk to dad pretty much every single day. He's been my birth coach. He'll have a lot to say about this game, for sure. It was really nice to have mom in the stands today."
Heal left Santa Clara after two seasons with 1,225 total points, an 18.6-point scoring average, and 296 assists. She joined Caitlin Clark in shooting at least 45.0% and averaging 18.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists in 2022-23 and 2023-24. She was named to the 2023 WCC All-Freshman Team and was a two-time All-WCC First Team selection in 2023 and 2024.
Last season, Heal was the only player in Division I to shoot at least 50% from the floor and 45% from 3-point range. But her sky-high numbers from Santa Clara took a hit, as she averaged 8.0 points, 2.0 rebounds and 1.2 assists. She had a season-high 24 points at Wake Forest on January 26.
And now she's proven herself to be a leader and go-to scorer for the Wildcats, 9-9 overall and 2-3 in the Big 12 Conference, who are the third-youngest women's basketball team in Division I.
"It's a mentality," Heal says. "I've definitely been more aggressive. In the first half of the season, I was a bit more passive than I have been. I looked in the mirror and said, 'I needed to get back to how I was at Santa Clara, when I was a point guard, leader and scorer. This team needs me to score and create and what I can do offensively.' That's what I've tried to embody in the past few games."
It was during a quiet Wednesday afternoon on the Stanford campus last May that Heal, preparing for final exams, took a moment to put her decision to join K-State into perspective.
"I'm so excited to be able to get back to playing Tess Heal basketball and to do that at K-State," she said into her cellphone.
And Tess Heal basketball has hit Manhattan. And there's still plenty of opportunities ahead for her to shine in the Big 12 season.
"Tess Heal basketball? It's gritty, it's getting downhill, getting to the rim, it's being physical," she says. "I was much better today against Utah at absorbing the contact. It's effortful. It's going to look like different things on different nights."
She pauses.
"Ultimately," she says, "it's being tough as nails, as my dad would say."
And Dad must be so proud.
Players Mentioned
F
/ Women's Basketball
K-State Women's Basketball | Coach Mittie Press Conference vs Utah
Sunday, January 11
K-State Women's Basketball | Athletes Press Conference vs Utah
Sunday, January 11
K-State Women's Basketball | Game Highlights vs Utah
Sunday, January 11
K-State Men's Basketball | Postgame Press Conference at Arizona State
Saturday, January 10
