There’s little doubt that Emporia State senior guard Cassondra Boston had the game against Kansas circled on her calendar from the time she first saw the exhibition schedule.

“You get up for it because it’s a big D-I school and the fact that we’re able to compete with them is pretty exciting,” Boston said.

Two years ago, the last time the Hornets met the Jayhawks in an exhibition game, Boston led her team back from an early 23-5 deficit to what was almost a shocking upset in overtime.

This year was a different story for Emporia State’s outstanding senior athlete as the Jayhawk defense gave Boston problems for most of the game as she went 5-for-13 from the field as her team lost 85-48.

“I knew it was going to be a different situation,” Boston said. “I mean obviously they’re a really good team.”

In a prime defensive effort during a 10-minute stretch in the first half where the Hornets did not have a single field goal, the Jayhawks forced a shot clock violation. Boston had the ball as the shot clock expired and threw up a prayer just after the buzzer sounded. In that moment, a smile lit up senior Sade Morris’s face, who was guarding her at the time.

“It just felt good that we were able to play out the full 30 seconds and not let them get the shot off,” Morris said.

The field goal drought was ended by none other than Boston as she hit a three-pointer with one minute to play in the first half.

Coming into the game, Henrickson said she worried about Boston’s ability to thread the defense and drive the lane for easy baskets. Kansas managed to remove that aspect of her game by forcing Boston, a strong right-handed player, to drive to her weaker left side more often than not. Anytime Boston managed to get into the lane, the Jayhawk defense would immediately bring help, forcing Boston to either retreat or kick it out to a teammate behind the arc.

“When I got beat I felt like I had great help,” Morris said.

With that aspect of her game thwarted, Boston took the shots Kansas gave her and managed to gash her opponents from beyond the arc. On the night, 12 of Boston’s 15 points were the result of three pointers.

“She’s just a great player — she figured out that she couldn’t get to the lane and she had to make a shot for herself,” Morris said.

Throughout the game, Henrickson rotated several of her guards around Boston in an effort to contain the impressive senior athlete. While freshman guard Monica Engelman struggled to keep up with Boston in only her second collegiate game, Henrickson complimented the job done by junior guard Marisha Brown.

“I thought she did a pretty good job, she sat down and tried to stay in front of her,” Henrickson said.

Morris spent a significant portion of the game on Boston as well. She had a solid game doing so, despite a few minor struggles.

“Sade did a good job of staying underneath and making her hit some tough shots,” senior guard-forward Danielle McCray said.

Although the Jayhawks kept Boston from even coming close to the 29 points she notched in her last meeting with Kansas and forced an impressive scoring drought, Henrickson said she was still dissatisfied with the team’s defensive effort.

“Defensively we’ve got to be better guarding the ball one on one and then guarding the three-point line,” Henrickson said.

— Edited by Amanda Thompson