Section:
B
Today in sports history
1960 — Philadelphia
Warriors rookie Wilt
Chamberlain set and NBA
record with his fourth 50-
point game of the season. He
scored 58 against the Knicks.
The University Daily Kansan
Sports
Inside: The Kansas track and field team got 11 first-place finishes at the Pre-Conference Invitational Friday at Anschutz Sports Pavilion. Sr Bacr 3B
SEE PAGE 3B
Inside: No. 16 Temple upset No. 1 Cincinnati, 77-69, ending the Bearcats 16-game winning streak.
SEE PAGE 5B
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2000
WWW.KANSAN.COM/SPORTS
'Hawks fight to the end for win
By Shawn Hutchinson sports@kansan.com
sports@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
The bump under Drew Gooden's left eye told the whole story.
Gooden, still breathless after Kansas' 53-50 victory against the Oklahoma Sooners yesterday in Allen Fieldhouse, tried his best to sum up the Jayhawks' much needed win.
"We came in and needed to hustle and that's what we did," Gooden said. "We fought, we boxed out, we went after every ball risking our bodies."
Then Gooden paused, pointed to the red bump forming under his eve, and smiled.
"Somebody elbowed me," he said. "There were like 10 elbows thrown at me the whole game. It's just stuff on the court you guys don't see."
What was seen, however, was the No. 24 Jayhawks improving to 19-7 overall and 8-4 in the Big 12 Conference by out battling the No. 20 Sooners in a game best described as a war.
With the win, Kansas tied Oklahoma (20-5, 8-4) for fifthplace in the Big 12 Conference standings.
"I really thought that was the hardest we have played and the hardest anybody has played against us since I've been here," said Kansas coach Roy Williams. "Every possession the kids were really fighting. It was a battle out there."
Fighting analogies aside, neither team was getting much done offensively all afternoon. The Jayhawks shot 36 percent from the field in the first half, while the Sooners shot an even colder 31 percent. Both teams were missing easy looks inside as Kansas held on to a 27-23 halftime lead.
Oklahoma took the lead twice in the second half, but Kansas
"We came in and needed to hustle and that's what we did."
Drew Gooden
Kansas forward
quickly regained control. The Sooners were able to pull within 52-60 with 3:56 remaining when Nolan Johnson made a layup, but Oklahoma would not score again.
Senior forward Ashante Johnson throws up a shot amid stiff pressure from Oldahoma defenders. Johnson started his first game yesterday and shot 5 for 10 and had 10 points in 16 minutes of play. Play by Brad Dreier/KANSAN
The Jayhawks had plenty of opportunities to ice the game down the stretch, but they missed seven of their last eight free throws. The game wasn't in the bag for Kansas until Oklahoma guard J.R. Raymond missed a three-pointer at the buzzer.
That defense clamped down on Oklahoma's Eduardo Najera, who came into the game as the Big 12's second-leading scorer with 19 points a game. But Najera, after spending most of the second half in foul trouble, scored only eight points on three-for-12 shooting.
"We knew he was a great player, and we knew it was going to take a great effort to control him," Hinrich said.
"We made it a little closer there at the end than we should have, but the bottom line is we won the game," said Kansas guard Kirk Hinrich. "And I think what won the game was our defense."
Kansas also erased some of the bitter memories of Wednesday's home loss to No. 14 Iowa State, when the Jayhawks blew a six-point lead with three minutes remaining and lost, 64-62.
Count yesterday's win as a big confidence booster for a team in search of confidence.
"We're very happy," said Kansas guard Kenny Gregory, who scored 11 points on five-fornie shooting. "Hopefully, this is something that we can build on."
Lynn Pride jumps over a Kansas State defender to take a shot. Pride scored 15 points against Kansas State, in Saturday's game. Photo by Brad Dreier/KANSAN
Women coast past 'Cats
Victory pushes Kansas into tie at top of Big 12
"They went down and scored," Jackson said. "I'll just stay back on
By Chris Fickett sports@kansan.com Kansan sportwriter
"Icouldn't play with one shoe," said Jackson, a junior point guard for the Kansas women's basketball team. "I came out of there and tried to dribble and made the pass, and my sock was slipping because my foot was so sweaty. I don't know how it came off. My shoe was still tied. It was tight."
So Jackson sat on the baseline, laughing, while her teammates ran their offense shorthanded at the other end of the court. It didn't affect the Jayhawks as they cruised to a 61-43 victory against the Wildcats in front of 8,650 fans at Allen Fieldhouse, the third-largest home crowd in history.
Jennifer Jackson likes defense. And losing a shoe during Saturday's game against Kansas State gave her a head start on plaving more of it.
"I couldn't get my foot back in the shoe. It was weird."
The 'Hawks will need her on defense as they continue their toughest stretch of the season. Kansas, 19-6 overall and 10-3 in the Big 12 Conference, is tied with three teams for first place in the league and plays two of its final three regular season games on the road.
defense from now on."
"Their defense was different," said Kansas coach Marian Washington. "They mix it up and camouflage it pretty well. We just needed to find something that we could live with and work on throughout the ball game."
That something was junior forward Jaclyn Johnson. Johnson, 6-foot-1, was the Jayhawks' most effective weapon against K-State's 6- Oleg Firsova, who snatched a game-high 15 rebounds. But most of her rebounds came off her 10 missed shots, which mainly came in the paint.
Defense kept Kansas in the game early against K-State. The Jayhawks were held scoreless for more than five minutes in the first half and didn't have a double-digit lead until 4:37 before halftime.
"Jaclyn will help us in a number of ways," Washington said. "I thought she hit the boards hard and really was explosive in the paint."
Johnson, however, shot eight-for-12 and scored a game-high 16 points.
gave Kansas a 26-point lead — its largest of the game and capped a 21-8 second-half scoring run. Kansas' defensive intensity began to wear on the 'Cats during that stretch.
"I felt like they were getting frustrated because we constantly put some kind of pressure on them every time that we scored," said senior forward Lynn Pride, who scored 15 points and grabbed nine rebounds.
The pressure will stay on as Kansas hits the road Wednesday to Columbia, Mo., where it plays at 7 p.m. against Missouri.
Her basket with 7:48 left in the game
Tie-breakers aside, Jackson broke down the Jayhawks' title hopes like this:
"The truth is there's a four-way tie for first place and we're part of it." Jackson said. "So we have to take care of our remaining three games and if we do that then we are assured at least a share of the championship."
But on the flip side, Washington pointed out, Kansas could end up having to play the first day of the conference tournament if it drops its remaining games and finishes outside the top four in the conference.
"We feel that if we take care of ourselves that we can share the title," she said. "And then it's about seeding for the Big 12 tournament. We could drop three and all of a sudden we're playing on the first day. It's that quick."
Kansas responds to initial loss by sweeping doubleheader
Rv Amanda Kaschube
Kansan sportswriter
Sports Columnist
Kansas, 6-1, lost to Southwest Missouri State on Saturday, 5-1, to give the Bears their first win of the year, but the Jayhawks came back yesterday to win both games in the doubleheader, 12-3 and 7-3.
The Jayhawk baseball team escaped Bear country with two wins, but not before its four-game winning streak was snapped.
"It was a good comeback from the lackluster performance (Saturday)," said
On Saturday, Southwest Missouri State's John Rheinceeker fanned 10 Jayhawks and held them to one run on four hits, compared to the seven strikeouts and five hits junior Pete Smart allowed. Smart said his pitching would have been enough if the offense had performed as well.
"When the offense scores, it puts more pressure on the other team," Smart said. "It makes it a lot easier."
Kansas coach Bobby Randall. "I like the way they fought — we're improving, but we can improve even more."
But the Javhawks didn't provide the
clutch hits. Kansas had a chance to extend the game in the top of the ninth with the bases loaded and two outs, but junior Brandon O'Neal struck out.
"Even without playing well, we had a chance to win in the ninth," Randall said. "I thought we pitched really well, but we have to improve our offensive approach dramatically."
The majority of the Kansas offense came from sophomore Ryan Klocksien, who went 2-3 with his first career home run.
Seth Jones
In the first game of the doubleheader yesterday, seven different Javahwaks got hits
Sophomore Jeff Davis, 2-0, struck out eight batters in the 12-3 win.
- including three from freshman Kevin Wheeler. And four 'Hawks had RBIs, including five from junior Brandon Smith. Randall said he was pleased with the improvement from the first game.
In the second game yesterday, Kansas didn't give the Bears an inch. The team racked up eleven hits on its way to a 7-3 victory. Senior Brett Kappelmann was two for three after he came in as a pinch hitter, and junior Sam Gish, 1-0, picked up the win to complete the sweep of the doubleheader.
sports@kansan.com
Senior steps into spotlight starting lineup against Sooners
"From San Diego, Calif., Ashante Johnson!"
Wait a minute. Did he just announce Ashante as a starter? The same guy who racked up 16 points against Princeton in late December but hardly left the bench against St. Louis the following game?
Better believe it. For the first time in his Kansas career, Johnson heard his name called on the starting lineup as thousands of screaming fans threw confetti and applauded in Allen Fieldhouse.
"It was great, just great," Johnson said after the game. "My heart was pounding. I felt like a little kid in a candy store."
Unfortunately for Johnson, his promotion to the starting line up wasn't because of his excellent play in practice, but because of freshman Drew Gooden's poor play in practice.
But as he stepped onto the floor, Johnson looked more like a candy store bully looking to rough up a little kid and take all his candy. He pounded on Oklahoma-star Eduardo Najera all afternoon, holding help the Sooners to eight points on just 3 for 12 field goals. By the end of the game, it was Johnson who had all of Najera's candy.
Coach Roy Williams said that if he would have gone with the best player this past week, he would have chosen Lester Earl for the starting power forward spot. But Williams said he was not prepared to throw Earl into the starting squad in his first game back from a seven-game suspension.
"Before the game, he wrote the names of the starting line up on the board, and he wrote my name up there." Johnson said. "I was shocked. But he just told me to go out there and play hard."
Johnson didn't find out about getting the starting nod from Williams until right before the game started.
Although he played aggressively against Oklahoma, Johnson looked more timid off the court than he did on it. Most games Johnson isn't even asked to come talk to the press, but yesterday he had a gang of cameramen and reporters surrounding him.
What a pleasant surprise it must have been for Johnson. In the past, he had shown the potential to have a big game, but after a turnover or a missed shot, Williams would yank Johnson, who would watch the rest of the game wearing a warm-up.
Most had never heard the man speak. It was at this time that the press discovered how soft-spoken Johnson was. Reporters practically had their voice recorders placed in Johnson's mouth to get his quotes.
Many Kansas fans have noticed the lack of play for Johnson, a fan-favorite. The Kansan sports desk gets e-mails weekly asking why Johnson doesn't get any clock.
"Were you nervous?" seemed to be the question of the day for Johnson. He whispered his answer back, trying hard not to make a quick movement and take a voice recorder to the mouth.
Johnson might not get to hear his name announced as a starter again until senior night. He might not learn that if you speak loudly, the reporters don't get quite so close with their voice recorders.
1
But as long as he doesn't mind, we won't mind. We'll settle for him making noise on the court.
Jones is a Mulvane senior in journalism