At center court after the game on Sunday, coach Bonnie Henrickson and her team huddled, raised their arms in the air and then waited.

Moments after defeating rival Kansas State 70-60 in the annual Pink Zone game to support the fight against breast cancer, Henrickson wanted to make sure her two hobbled — and therefore slower — players joined the circle of Jayhawks.

Photo Gallery

Kansas Women's Basketball vs. Kansas State

Photos from Sunday's Sunflower Showdown against Kansas State. Freshman guard Monica Engelman led the Jayhawks to a 70-60 victory as Kansas improved to 14-7 for the season.

Without Angel Goodrich and Danielle McCray, two former starters who both suffered season-ending ACL injuries in the past month, Kansas rallied with its most passionate outing of the season.

“Not only were we fighting for the survivors of breast cancer or the ones who have passed with any type of cancer, we had our own fight,” senior guard Sade Morris said. “Unfortunately we’ve been hit with two ACL tears and it has been a struggle. We had to show everybody that we still have fight.”

In front of 7,580 vocal fans, the remaining Jayhawks did just that and improved to 4-4 in the Big 12.

That Kansas defeated Kansas State at home isn’t completely surprising. After all, the Wildcats have been equally inconsistent this season, entering Sunday 3-4 in the Big 12.

But what was surprising — and what answered many of the pregame questions surrounding the Jayhawks — was the aggressiveness displayed by Kansas from start to finish.

In building a 10-point lead without their biggest contributor, the Jayhawks showed, at least for one game, that other players are capable replacements.

“We felt like we needed to prove something,” Morris said. “Just because our best player is out doesn’t mean that’s the end of it for us.”

Yet that seemed to be the consensus after word spread of McCray’s season-ending

injury Thursday. McCray opened the season as the Preseason Big 12 Player of the Year. She averaged 19.8 points per game this season and is currently fourth on Kansas’ all-time scoring list.

But harder to quantify is McCray’s tendency to carry the Jayhawks in key situations. At the end of last season, with Kansas winning nine of its final 12 games, McCray played her best basketball of the season.

Combined with the loss of Goodrich, Kansas’ leading distributor on offense, questions surrounding the Jayhawks’ ability to score arose.

“It’s been an emotional few days,” freshman forward Carolyn Davis said. “It’s been hard dealing with the loss of Danielle. But it’s brought us closer as a team because we know we have to step up. Every single person.”

In the victory against K-State, Davis committed just one turnover and teamed with freshman Monica Engelman to score 30 points and grab 14 rebounds.

At the beginning of the season, the duo rarely played while adjusting to the college game. Now, two months later, they’re key pieces of the immediate future.

“I was heartbroken about the Danielle situation,” Engelman said. “I still am. And today I was a little bit nervous. I knew that I had to step up.”

In the absence of McCray, Kansas turned in its most e# cient performance of the season. The Jayhawks shot 56 percent. They committed only 11 turnovers. And they continuously attacked the Wildcats, drawing fouls and finding open players. K-State cut Kansas’ lead to five with seven minutes left, but the Jayhawks rallied.

That theme of rallying — of coming together to move on — dominated talk after the game.

The Jayhawks declared this their most inspired performance of the season, and really that’s hard to argue with.

“When they attacked us, we attacked right back,” Engelman said. “We didn’t get

passive.” Thing is, the Wildcats described the game in the same manner.

“We were really just outplayed today in all the small areas of the game,” K-State coach Deb Patterson said. “We were outplayed in production and we were definitely outplayed in aggressiveness.”