In a new environment loaded with distractions, the Kansas women’s basketball team first struggled with, and then conquered, its opponents.

Now the Jayhawks return to Lawrence an improved team ready for a new season.

Coach Bonnie Henrickson and the Jayhawk women returned to Kansas Wednesday after a 10-day trip to Australia, which saw them go 3-1 against a variety of Aussie competition.

The team played an admittedly bad game to start its vacation, falling to the Sydney Flames 88-54. Things improved quickly, though, and the Jayhawks won their last three games by a combined 63 points.

They outlasted Logan Blue, 78-71, and then dominated both Logan Red and the U-19 State team from Queensland 83-56 and 83-54 respectively.

“Game one, you know, we didn’t come out with very good intensity and we didn’t prepare ourselves like we wanted to,” sophomore guard Sade Morris said.

The wake up call from that loss served as motivation in the rest of the contests for sophomore Danielle McCray.

“After that woke us up we had a talk with coach and we turned it up from there,” said McCray, who led Kansas averaging 21 points per game on the trip.

Other standouts on the trip included sophomore Porscha Weddington, who averaged just more than 12 points a game, and senior Taylor McIntosh, who posted back-to-back double-digit rebounding efforts.

Morris, who averaged nearly 14 points per game, enjoyed the fast pace of the games and the change in her team’s attitude.

“We had to let people in Australia know who Kansas really is,” she said.

Basketball wasn’t the only thing the team did in Australia. At first it was hard for the players to focus on the game because of everything outside the arena.

The team got the full spectrum of sights, including the Sydney Opera House, the Great Barrier Reef and some bungee jumping.

“The snorkeling was pretty fun, seeing all the exotic fish in the Great Barrier Reef,” McCray said.

While the memories of those events will last a lifetime, the work they got done on the court should pay dividends when the team suits up for practice in October.

“This was like practice, letting us know where we stood,” Morris said. “We found out a lot about ourselves.”

With it being the first time her team has played together in months and the first time she’s played out on the wing, McCray isn’t surprised that she and her teammates have some work to do.

“This trip helped me see what I need to work on before the season starts. It also gave the coaches good perspective on the improvements we all need,” she said. “Basically, we’ve just got to keep getting better.”

— Edited by Jeff Briscoe