Prior to last Saturday’s 63-61 victory against Missouri, the Kansas women’s basketball team had lost four games in a row. The first conference victory of the season ended that streak.

“We will definitely build off of this,” Kansas coach Bonnie Henrickson said. “We will learn from our mistakes and build off the positives.

Tonight’s face-off against Colorado offers Kansas, 8-8 (1-4 Big 12), its best opportunity of the season to notch another conference road victory.

The Buffaloes have defeated the Jayhawks in eight straight meetings, including a 19-point decision in Boulder, Colo., last season. But Kansas has reason for optimism as it takes to the road for an 8 p.m. tip-off.

This season’s Buffalo team has changed from last year’s squad that finished 22-8 and earned a Top 20 ranking.

Four starters are gone from last season’s team, and Colorado has dropped four of its last five contests. Just like Kansas, its lone conference victory came against Missouri.

In their last conference match-up, Colorado lost an overtime game to the last-place Oklahoma State, 76-70.

The Jayhawks should take advantage of its success in protecting the ball against the Buffaloes, who average more than 20 turnovers per outing. The Jayhawks rank 29th nationally and commit less than 15 turnovers a game.

The Jayhawks have posted a 1-4 record on the road and are winless in both games during the conference road schedule.

Troubled early in the season by second-half collapses, Kansas has put together two consecutive solid second halves in games against Texas A&M; and Missouri.

Against Texas A&M;, Kansas erased an 11-point first half deficit to tie the game with only one minute remaining, but eventually fell 62-60.

Saturday’s victory against Missouri saw Kansas at a five-point disadvantage going into the break, but a strong second half performance created the two-point victory.

The difference in these previous two contests was a more potent offensive attack coming out of the locker room.

Scoring production has been an issue for the second half Jayhawks, but against both the Aggies and the Tigers, they have achieved above-average scoring production. The Jayhawks offense averages 28 points per game after the break, but has put up more than 35, on average, in the last two outings.

“I thought our offensive execution was solid,” Henrickson said. “We got kind of soft, but turned it on to finish the second half.”

Although the Jayhawks fought back against the Aggies, the game was lost on rebounding. The Jayhawks surrendered 18 offensive boards to the Aggies while grabbing only nine.

“We knew after the Texas A&M; game that if we didn’t box people out and get rebounds, we wouldn't win a game in this conference,” Henrickson said.

Keying the late offensive spark for Kansas against Missouri was an impressive showing on the boards against a taller Missouri team. Junior forward Crystal Kemp led the way by grabbing 14 rebounds, seven of which were offensive.

The second chances created easy scores that helped Kansas secure its first conference victory in a highly contested game.

With a victory over Colorado, Kansas would take sole possession of ninth place in the conference.

Edited by Lisa Coble-Krings