Friday, February 25, 2005
This must be getting old.
Another Big 12 Conference match-up and Kansas will again face a ranked opponent. Tomorrow’s 5 p.m. Sunflower Showdown at No. 18 Kansas State pits Kansas against a team it has not defeated in the last seven games.
Wednesday’s 70-60 loss at home to No. 6 Baylor was the sixth straight loss to a ranked opponent this season.
The Baylor game pitted Kansas against its highest-ranked adversary of the season, and the Jayhawks rose to the occasion, responding to several Baylor rallies in each half.
“We have been able to answer runs when we need to in games,” coach Bonnie Henrickson said. “We need that confidence going into Kansas State.”
Game one in the Sunflower series brought the Wildcats a 63-45 victory, but the Jayhawks held a tie game at the half after opening the game by building a nine-point lead.
“We’ve got to make sure we set the tone at the beginning of the game,” senior guard Aquanita Burras said.
Equally as important is maintaining that intensity for both periods. Kansas did not contain the Kansas State barrage after halftime, and the Wildcats cruised to an easy victory.
But the Jayhawk team that previously limped through second halves is gone. Although the Big 12 schedule has left Kansas with a 12-13 (5-9 Big 12) record, the short roster has adapted to the demands of the conference schedule by putting together solid 40-minute performances.
“We played K-State pretty well the first time we played them this season,” junior guard Erica Hallman said. “We are a much better team than we were the first time we played them.
Because of the weekly routine of facing highly talented opponents, the Jayhawks no longer feel intimidated by paper statistics. In the Big 12, no game is a day off.
“It’s pretty much just another game for us,” Burras said of playing Kansas State. “We’ve just got to take it a day at a time.”
For Kansas, there is only one day of rest and one day of practice in between Wednesday’s Baylor game and the showdown with Kansas State, 19-6 (10-4). The lack of rest coupled with 40-minute games logged by junior forward Crystal Kemp and Burras could weigh on the Kansas squad Saturday.
But Henrickson said she thought the fatigue would be balanced by optimism from the Jayhawks’ relative success against Baylor on Wednesday.
“Even though we didn’t come out on the right end as far as the scoreboard goes, there are some things that we will be able to build on and gain some momentum from,” Henrickson said.
One area in particular where the Jayhawks experienced new success was with the execution of a zone defense. Before the Baylor game, Kansas had used zone sparingly. Against the Bears, the zone temporarily shut down their inside game and allowed the Jayhawks to recover from an 18-point deficit.
“We have done a good job mixing up our defenses and executing well,” Henrickson said. “With what we have staring us in the face with Kansas State and Iowa State, we are going to have to be able to mix up our defenses.”
Going to zone against Kansas State could prove fatal with Wildcat sharpshooters Laurie Koehn and Kendra Wecker, who both shoot near 40 percent from the three-point line.
But facing tough odds is old habit for Kansas, which has been an underdog in this conference, and this series, all season long.
Edited by Azita Tafreshi
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