Junior forward Danielle McCray's free-throw line jumper as the first half's final seconds ticked away against Fairfield gave Kansas a 41-27 lead, and put the Jayhawks in position to cruise to a clear-the-bench victory.

But as Kansas has done on too many occasions this season, the Jayhawks allowed a far less-talented team to hang around in the second half before pulling away for an 80-60 victory.

"We had no offensive rhythym," coach Bonnie Henrickson said, "and no defensive intensity at all."

Photo Gallery

Kansas Women's Basketball vs. Fairfield

A photo gallery of the women's basketball game Monday night against Fairfield.

Despite occasional lapses in focus, Kansas never trailed and jumped out to a 19-9 lead at the second media timeout eight minutes into the first half using a balanced attack and offensive rebounding.

Still, even that gap should have been larger. The Jayhawks shot 73 percent building the early 10-point advantage, but limited their scoring opportunities with six costly turnovers during that span.

Kansas committed only seven more turnovers the rest of the game behind the strong play of its point guard tandem, senior Ivana Catic and junior LaChelda Jacobs. The Jayhawks know they must continue to limit miscues as they prepare to face demanding Big 12 defenses.

"In the Big 12, most of our games come down to possessions," junior guard Sade Morris said. "We need the ball. If we continue to turn it over, we're going to run ourselves out of games."

Guiding the Jayhawks to their first half lead was McCray and sophomore center Krysten Boogaard. Both scored 10 points in the first 20 minutes, providing the Jayhawks with inside points (Boogaard) and an outside threat (McCray).

Perhaps the biggest two points, at least in terms of career achievement, came when McCray knocked down a midrange jumper with four minutes, 51 seconds left in the first half. The shot gave the Olathe native 1,000 points for her career, becoming the 20th Jayhawk to do so.

"I was really relived to get it out of the way," McCray said. "It's a great honor and a great accomplishment, but right now I just need to focus on conference play. I'm glad I did it before conference started."

The Big 12’s second leading scorer saved a couple big shots for the second half though After Fairfield junior Tara Flaherty's layup cut Kansas' lead to nine with 15 minutes left, McCray buried a three-pointer to creep the Jayhawks' lead back to double digits.

Three minutes later, McCray hit another three that gave Kansas a 54-41 lead. From there, the Jayhawks built - and held – a 20-point (or more) lead for the rest of the game.

"It was a confidence builder," McCray said of Kansas’ response. "Those shots

gave us some energy."

Henrickson’s team begins conference play Saturday evening on the road against undefeated Kansas State. The Jayhawks lost both their meetings with the Wildcats in 2008, narrowly losing 64-58 in Manhattan and falling 61-50 at Allen Fieldhouse.

Check Kansan.com for coverage of the Sunflower showdown.