Friday, November 6, 2009
Someone forgot to tell Aishah Sutherland that this was Danielle McCray’s team.
The wiry forward had a coming out party in Sunday’s exhibition game against Pittsburg State, tallying 20 points and nine rebounds in the first half alone. The sophomore showcased her athleticism right off the bat, dominating the paint with powerful lay-ups and forceful rebounding. She ran wild in transitions, leading to easy baskets on the other end. With senior guard Sade Morris benched because of foul trouble, Sutherland and senior guard and forward Danielle McCray displayed an unstoppable inside-outside tandem.
“It causes the guards to suck in and try to get something inside,” McCray said.
Sutherland’s dominance leaves opposing defenses with a troubling question.
“Are you gonna leave Danielle and Sade to go double?” coach Bonnie Henrickson said.
Once the defense is drawn to Sutherland, in other words, it’s bombs away for McCray and Morris.
But the game didn’t start as smoothly as the 86-56 final score implies. The first exhibition game of the year for Kansas women’s basketball justly fit its title. Each team kicked off the contest sloppily, with basketballs soaring out of bounds as if they were magnetically repellent from the players’ hands.
Contact-heavy fouls were frequent and jump shots clunked off of an unforgiving rim. The opening four minutes of the game were polluted with eleven total turnovers (eight from Pittsburg State, three from Kansas). But the chaos cooled down and Sutherland took over.
In her first ten minutes of play, Sutherland went six for six from the field and two for two from the stripe. She collected five rebounds. She had no turnovers and only one foul. Pittsburg State simply had no answer for the 6-foot-2 slasher with twisting tree branches for arms.
The only time Sutherland showed any shyness on the floor was after she snagged a rebound from a McCray miss. As she swiveled her body and soared towards the hoop for the put-back, Sutherland’s trademark white headband popped off her head and to the floor and her shot was blocked.
“There’s just something about my headband,” Sutherland said later.
Redshirt freshman point guard Angel Goodrich showed flashes of brilliance with 10 assists but was also bitten by the turnover bug. If the clairvoyant passer can take care of the ball, she will continue to feed the bevy of scorers that Henrickson has at her disposal.
“She sees things that most players don’t,” Henrickson said. “The post players benefited the most from how Angel can play.”
Co-captain Nicollette Smith provided a gritty and versatile spark off the bench, spreading the floor with her range and finishing with 12 points and 8 rebounds.
“It spaces people,” Henrickson said. “What’s good about Nic and Aishah is that they don’t play alike.”
McCray and center Krysten Boogaard took over in the second half, scoring 21 of the first 23 Kansas points.
But its the two new pieces, Goodrich and Sutherland, that can fully configure the five piece puzzle.
“This a team thats got to recognize to get up and push and be athletic in transition,” Henrickson said.
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