The moment fortunes seemed to change — the moment Kansas began clawing their way back in its game against Nebraska — occurred with a loose ball bouncing at players’ ankles.

Kansas’ offense was floundering in the first three minutes of the second half, and with the Jayhawks’ already slim tournament hopes beginning to fade altogether, junior forward Danielle McCray ripped the ball from defenders, muscled a layup and finished the play with a free throw.

Photo Gallery

Kansas Women's Basketball vs. Nebraska

A photo gallery of the women's first round win against Nebraska at the Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City.

It is insignificant that Nebraska still had its 39-31 lead after McCray’s play. Using timely scoring and key defensive stands, the Jayhawks toppled the Cornhuskers’ lead. In doing so, Kansas also toppled Nebraska, 61-56.

“It gave me confidence that I could at least make a shot. At the beginning, I couldn’t make nothing,” McCray said. “But I just felt I needed to get something different. My teammates felt how emotional I was and they just fed off of it. We didn’t want to go home tonight.”

McCray’s season, especially down the stretch, has been defined by big game after big game. But McCray was never so tough, so relentlessly determined to score, as she was Thursday afternoon.

She scored 17 of her 22 points in the second half, and all of them came against a defense determined to stop her from even catching the ball.

“What made Danielle’s performance so tough is that she struggled in the first half,” coach Bonnie Henrickson said. “She has the tendency to get this look on her face, which really isn’t a good look for us.

“But I thought that kid had perseverance.”

True, but McCray also had help.

Kansas’ best scoring threat in the first half — and at times in the second half — wasn’t McCray, the All-Big 12 First team selection. Instead, junior guard Sade Morris filled that role, scoring a career-high 24 points and igniting Kansas late in the game with two hard-fought steals she converted into layups.

“We call them Batman and Robin. [Texas A&M coach] Gary Blair calls them Pippen and Jordan,” Henrickson said. “I mean, they’re great together. When De stays aggressive, it makes them better.”

Morris carried Kansas before halftime. She scored 12 points, including big shots to keep Nebraska from building a big lead.

Still, the first half played out much the way an eight seed vs. nine seed matchup should: a tightly contested game with plenty of give and take from both teams.

But late in the first half, and early in the second half, Nebraska controlled the game. The Cornhuskers continuously pounded the ball inside to Cory Montgomery, and the Jayhawks struggled to stop her. Montgomery finished with 20 points, but didn’t score in the final eight minutes.

With Kansas’ postseason fate up for grabs, the Jayhawks clamped down defensively and held the Cornhuskers to just eight points in the final 10:20.

“We know that a lot of teams want to end up in the position where if you win one, you might get in (the tournament),” McCray said. “And we embraced that and came out for a hard fight tonight.”

On Tuesday night, two nights before the game, Henrickson and the Jayhawks visited the house of Morris’ grandmother. A native of Norman, Okla., Morris had plenty of friends and family in attendance against Nebraska.

By converting two steals into layups, Morris helped spark Kansas into the second round of the Big 12 tournament — a feat that allows the Jayhawks to keep their NCAA tournament hopes alive.

“I didn’t want to go home. I wasn’t ready to leave,” Morris said. “We came here to go the NCAA tournament. We came here to win. We needed it to win and we needed it to get on a roll.”

— —Edited by Justin Leverett