THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, MARCH 12, 2012
SOFTBALL
Kansas earns 20th win, breaks school record
PAGE 3B
ALEC TILSON
alectilson@kansan.com
Although the softball team was two outs away from a schoolrecord 18th victory in a row on Saturday, but the victory was far from assured.
With Kansas leading 1-0 in the top of the seventh inning, a fielding error allowed a North Florida runner to advance to third base with only one out. But just as she had done throughout the game, freshman pitcher Alicia Pille stopped the threat.
"We were all scrapping and fighting for that one more win," sophomore infelder Ashley Newman said. "Making history meant everything to us. I've never seen so much fire and passion in everybody when that seventh inning was over."
Pille recorded two outs and secured Kansas' record-breaking win. The emotional victory marked an accomplishment no Kansas team in history had achieved before.
Kansas won all five games to win the Osprey Classic in Jacksonville, Fla. over the weekend and extended its win streak to 20 games. Kansas outscored the opposition 36-7 in three games versus Delaware State and two against North Florida.
Newman and junior outfielder Maggie Hull keyed the Kansas offense throughout the tournament. The one and two hitters in the lineup each collected 10 hits, combining for 18 runs, 10RBIs and five stolen bases.
"Ashley has been doing phenomenal," Hull said. "It's fun batting behind her. It gives our team momentum when she gets on base and makes me want to hit even more."
M. Hull
Kansasupped its batting average to .325, helped by a 17-run outburst in a five-inning victory over Delaware State on Friday.
The pitching staff did its part, only allowing three earned runs in the five games.
In two starts, Pille (9-0) pitched 11 innings, struck out 13 batters and did not allow an earned run. She also picked up a save in the team's first game.
Sophomore pitcher Kristin Martinez (5-0) threw 11 innings
in her two starts. She allowed two earned runs and struck out 11.
"We've been really stressing how we need a complete staff," said coach Megan Smith. "It's not just one, it's not just two who are going to get it done. We need every one ready when we call their names."
The team brings its 20 victories in a row back to Lawrence as it prepares to face Missouri in a weekend series beginning Friday. Hull knows such an impressive stretch could not have happened without contributions from every player.
"The number one thing is there's so many people who can step up in big situations," Hull said. "It's comforting to know that if I have an off game, my teammates are going to pick me up and that's what has gotten us 20 straight wins."
Despite the undefeated weekend, Smith said the team did not play its best softball. It was not sharp, but seeing all the pieces of the team working together is promising going into conference play next week, Smith said.
— Edited by Pat Strathman
SOFTBALL STREAKING
BASKETBALL
VCU looks for another NCAA tournament run
RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia Commonwealth is heading west in hopes of getting another run going in the NCAA tournament, and the Rams finally will play a fellow mid-major level school.
VCU (28-6) is a No. 12 seed and will play fifth-seeded Wichita State (27-5) in the second round in Portland, Ore. The game is slated for Thursday in the South region.
A year ago, the Rams were one of the last teams put in the field of 68, and they beat five BCS-level teams in a stunning run to the Final Four in Houston.
Third-year coach Shaka Smart said a key for his team will be taking what they can from that experience, but remembering what it took to get on the historic roll as well.
"I think it was a positive to learn from it and the things that brought us success," Smart, now 83-27 in three years at VCU. "It's not something we want to dwell on and we don't want to in any way think that last year is going to make us win this year. We still have to go out and earn a victory, just like we did during the regular season."
The Rams have won 25 of their last 28 games after a 3-3 start, and that's with only one player — senior forward Bradford Burgess — who also was a major contributor last season.
MARCH MADNESS
Associated Press
No.1 Kentucky falters in conference championship game
ASSOCIATED PRESS
John Calipari said from the time he arrived in the Big Easy that he didn't like conference tournaments.
Kentucky coach John Calipari reacts during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Florida in the semi-final round of the 2012 Southeastern Conference tournament at the New Orleans Arena in New Orleans. Saturday, March 10.
After top-ranked Kentucky endured three tough games in as many days with no league title to show for it, his opinion wasn't bound to change any time soon.
"I wish this would have happened yesterday so we got home a day earlier," Calipari said Sunday after the Wildcats collapsed late in a 71-64 loss to Vanderbilt in the Southeastern Conference tournament final.
more than three months.
The Wildcats (32-2) won two of their three games in New Orleans but never led any by more than single digits and trailed in the second half of all three.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Still, they were on the cusp of extending their winning streak to 25 games when Anthony Davis' free throw gave them a 62-55 lead with 5:23 left. Then Kentucky suddenly started settling for jump shots, taking nine from that point and missing all of them, including five from 3-point range.
"Their 24 game winning streak. Their name on the front of their jersey doesn't matter to us," Vanderbilt's Lance Goulbourne said. "Whoever was in our way, we were going to play as hard as we could to try to win that championship."
"We just went ice cold. There was like a lid on the basket. Nothing was falling for us," said freshman point guard Marquis Teague, who went scoreless on 0-for-7 shooting. "It was wide open shots that we normally make. So it was surprising us that we were missing. Some days it's like that."
Jeffery Taylor scored 18 points, John Jenkins added 17 and Vanderbilt rallied with a 16-2 run over the final 5 minutes to end the Wildcats' winning streak that lasted
Festus Ezeli had 17 points for Vanderbilt (24-10), which was playing in its first SEC tournament final since 1951, the year of its only other championship. The Commodores pushed ahead in the final minutes with a few timely shots, but mostly with suffocating defense.
Darius Miller scored 16 points in a surprise start for Kentucky while Terrence Jones and Davis both added 12. Davis had 10 rebounds and three blocked shots, but he got into some rare early foul trouble that limited his effectiveness.
Kentucky missed its last 14 field goals in all, not hitting one over the final 8:04. The Wildcats shot just 35.9 percent from the field (23 of 64).
"Maybe now everybody realizes we're not invincible," Calipari said. "We're like everybody else out there. We're going to have to execute, play hard and with some aggressiveness and intensity or we will get beat."
Kentucky moves on to NCAA tournament games that will mean a lot more to them, but it remains to be seen whether LSU and Florida, which both gave the Wildcats tough games, and Vanderbilt, which beat them, provided UK's future opponents with a strategic blueprint.
"We really wanted to be physical with them because we saw the success that LSU had and Florida had," Vanderbilt forward Steve Tchieng-gain said. "It was just being physical and try to box them out as much as we can to try to limit their second chance stuff, offensive rebounds, stuff like that."
Vanderbilt also attacked the basket offensively rather than relying on jump shots. In the process, the Commodores got Kentucky
Kidd-Gilchrist had a pained expression on his face in the locker room afterward, giving short answers in hushed tones and blaming himself for getting in foul trouble and failing to get a single rebound.
forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist in foul trouble, and he fouled out with 2:51 to go.
Still, Kentucky appeared to be taking control when Jones' successive
powerful dunks put the Wildcats up 54-49 and worked the heavily-pro Kentucky crowd into a frenzy.
Vanderbilt worked its way back to tie the game at 62 on Ezeli's tip-in with 1:56 left and took the lead for good when freshman Kedren Johnson converted a three-point play on a drive to the hoop.
The loss spoiled the Wildcats' perfect season against SEC competition. Kentucky is 18-1 against league
foes.
Afterward, Calpari assured his team that they would be fine and might even be better off not carrying a long winning streak into the NCAA tournament.
"it'll get us more focused now", sophomore guard Doron Lamb said.
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