Right then — right after Kansas’ remarkable late-season turnaround ended with a disappointing 75-71 loss to South Florida in the WNIT championship — junior guard Sade Morris still hurt.

Forget the game’s record-setting crowd, the string of victories to even reach this point and forget Kansas’ ferocious comeback attempt that closed South Florida’s double-digit lead to one in the final minutes.

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Kansas Women's Basketball: WNIT Chamionship

A record crowd of more than 16,100 filled Allen Fieldhouse to watch the Jayhawks compete in Saturday's WNIT Championship game against the USF Bulls.

In a somber locker room, Morris and the Jayhawks sat in silence with watering eyes, the sting from the loss still fresh.

“I mean, we just lost a championship game,” Morris said. “We felt like crap and we were just sitting there.

“We still feel like crap.”

Kansas’ season ended with players sitting on the bench, heads buried in hands or jerseys as South Florida celebrated in a suddenly hushed Allen Fieldhouse.

Moments before, though, the Jayhawks appeared poised to cap off their season with a late-game comeback that sliced the Bulls’ lead from 12 to one with 2:22 left. As Kansas inched closer, the crowd and sense of a WNIT championship seemed to grow louder.

But Kansas never grasped the lead, leaving coach Bonnie Henrickson to console a thoroughly disappointed group in the locker room.

“It’s just so tough because we made that comeback at the end of the season and then we made one the last four or five minutes of the game,” senior guard Ivana Catic said. “It just makes it that much tougher to deal with everything.”

The reasons the Jayhawks reached this point, the aspects of their game that led them to the championship game in the first place, vanquished against South Florida.

The Jayhawks’ shooting appeared spotty at best, making an uncharacteristically low 38 percent of their attempts, while missing handfuls of routine open looks.

“That’s as bad as we’ve shot in a long time,” Henrickson said.

But that statistic alone didn’t doom the Jayhawks.

Instead, Kansas struggled at great lengths to contain a speedy and attacking South Florida team. The Bulls spread out the usually fundamentally sound Jayhawks, forcing one-on-one matchups that left Kansas’ players on a defensive island.

Yet, even when they initially were kept from scoring, the Bulls grabbed offensive rebounds in critical moments. In the end, the Jayhawks’ lack of defensive stops resulted in a runner-up finish that left a sour taste in players’ mouths.

“On any other night, when we got ourselves in a hole, when we didn’t shoot well, we defended,” Catic said. “And tonight, we didn’t and we didn’t box out.”

Still, Kansas’ offense sure didn’t help its cause.

Junior forward Danielle McCray, the player Kansas had leaned on most, struggled with South Florida’s aggressive and swarming defense. And the Bulls were relentless.

South Florida trapped and double-teamed McCray throughout the game to “get the ball out of her hands” coach Jose Fernandez said.

McCray scored 24 points, but made just 7 of 25 shots.

“A cold night was going to happen,” McCray said. “But it happened when we really needed it not to happen.”

The Jayhawks’ improbable run ended in a rather improbable circumstance. After drawing just 1,981 fans for Kansas’ first WNIT game, Saturday’s crowd of 16,113 marked the largest audience to ever watch a Kansas women’s basketball game.

It also marked the largest crowd for a women’s game played in a Big 12 arena.

Just as important as any trophy, the Jayhawks gained a fresh wave of fans by showing the entertainment value Kansas women’s basketball possesses.

“I didn’t think it would ever happen, no matter if we won or not,” McCray said. “But we all got it down in our heads that once you win, the fans are coming.”

Still, for Morris and her teammates those thoughts strayed far from their minds in the moments after the loss.

Kansas entered the WNIT tournament with every intention of winning it. And when that goal fell short, the pain set in.

“This one’s going to hurt for a while,” Morris said. “It’s not just going to be something that goes away in a day.”

— — Edited by Jesse Trimble