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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2012
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MEN'S BASKETBALL
Withey playing large
MAX ROTHMAN
mrothman@kansan.com
Opposition beware: junior center Jeff Withey is falling on the scorer's table for possessions now.
Oklahoma State freshman guard Cezar Guerrero tried to up-fake Withey, who held his ground. A half-second later, when Guerrero took a shot, Withey soared with an extended right arm and blocked it. He tipped the ball to the sideline, beat Guerrero to the ball and threw it to his teammate, junior guard Travis Releford, as he fell on the scorer's table.
Withey ran from the scorer's table to the other end of the floor and demanded the ball. Once he got it, he drew two defenders and tossed a no-look, over-the-head pass to junior forward Kevin Young for the wide-open dunk.
It was this hustle and skill from Withey, who finished with 18 points, a career-high 20 rebounds and seven blocks, that propelled No.7 Kansas (20-5, 10-2) to an
81-66 victory over Oklahoma State Saturday afternoon at Allen Fieldhouse.
"Teams focus on Thomas a lot," senior guard Tyshawn Taylor said of junior forward Thomas Robinson. "When jeff is playing well, it gives us that extra threat."
With Withey flying all over the court for blocks, deflections, rebounds and points, Robinson reached 24 points and 14 rebounds, his 18th double-double, rather easily.
"I feel like I'm not even working to score anymore now with the way Jeff is playing," Robinson said.
Led by Withey's energy and production, the Jayhawks broke the game open early and led 51-24 going into halftime. However in the second half, perhaps because they felt comfortable with the lead, the Jayhawks played sloppily, committing 11 turnovers and succumbing to the Cowboys' full-court pressure.
"It was unbelievable to watch from my standpoint," coach Bill Self said. "Just making grade-
school plays."
Despite his team's second-half carelessness, Withey never slowed down. Even when he didn't block a shot, he challenged Oklahoma State shooters with a shot-altering hand, to swat. The fieldhouse crowd adored the energy, going wild for every one of his triumphs.
Withey was just one week removed from a scoreless night at Missouri.
"Coach was really angry about that," Withey said. "He feels like I just let them punk me."
On Wednesday at Baylor, Withe scored a career-high 25 points. It signified potential, not yet consistency.
Now he's got two consecutive colossal performances, both times taking advantage of the attention that Robinson draws.
"He fully understands he's playing with the best player in America," Oklahoma State coach Travis Ford said, "That's good for Kansas, but bad for us."
Edited by Pat Strathman
TRAVIS YOUNG /KANSAN
Junior center Jeff Withey shoots against OSU freshman guard Le'Bryan Nas during the first half of the game. Withey scored 18 points with 20 rebounds. Kansas won against OSU 81-66.
CHRIS BRONSON /KANSAN
TENNIS
Sophomore Paulina Los returns a volley in here singles match Sunday afternoon at the Jayhawk Tennis Center where Los defeated her Illinois opponent 6-4, 6-4.
Doubles play helps tennis take both weekend matches
CORBIN MIHELIC
cmihelic@kansan.com
"A lot of our girls stepped up and helped the other girls," coach Amy Hall-Holt said. "We're just really fortunate that we are competing as hard as we are."
The Kansas women's tennis team remains perfect in dual match play after taking down Illinois State and University of Texas El Paso over the weekend.
Yesterday, the Jayhawks overcame singles losses from Dylan Windom and Monica Pezzotti to defeat a struggling Illinois State team, 5-2. Pezzotti, a junior, has been forced to fill the No. 1 singles void left by senior Ekaterina Morozova for this season's dual matches.
Pezzotti has already had four different singles or doubles matches decided in an extra set or tiebreaker this season. Morozova is still a member of the team, but will not be competing in any matches this spring.
"It's not like she's getting beat really, really bad," Hall-Holt said referring to Pezzotti. "She's competing for those points against good No. 1 players. I'm really
Ludueha, who joined the team this semester from Curico, Chile, has yet to lose a match as a Jayhawk, remaining undefeated at the No. 5 singles spot and playing doubles with Windom.
The team won two of the three doubles matches against Illinois State. Paulina Los, Claire Dreyer and Victoria Khanevskaya all won their singles matches against the Redbirds. Freshman newcomer Maria Belen Ludueña had the fourth singles victory yesterday in what Hall-Holt called a "not a pretty match."
happy with Monica's performance and the way she is competing right now"
{"ludueña's) demeanor on the court and her excitement about being here on the team competing has actually filtered out through the team." Hall-Holt said. "It's very exciting to watch her compete. She was struggling with going from playing on clay court to hard court, but she has adjusted so quickly since she's been here."
On Friday, the team defeated UTEP, also 5-2, sweeping doubles play and using that momentum to close the Miners out in
singles. Los (No. 2 singles) and Khanevskaya (No. 6 singles) both lost in straight sets, but not before the dual had already been decided.
The team will take tomorrow off before having two more home dual matches this coming weekend against Bradley on Saturday and Arkansas-Little Rock on Sunday.
"We're just going to get in and view video and watch the little things we need to work on," Hall-Holt said. "Some of us need to work on returns, and serves and different situations. We'll just review that and work individually with the girls and get them ready for Saturday's match."
- Edited by Max Lush
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TRACK AND FIELD
Women's relay excels, qualifies for nationals
The Kansas track and field team had some major accomplishments this weekend in two out-of-state meets.
Half of the team went to Seattle, Wash., for the Flotrack Husky Classic, while the other half went to Fayetteville, Ark., for the Tyson Invitational, where they met with some of the best track and field programs in the nation.
The women's 4x400-meter relay race in Arkansas was the highlight of the weekend. Four schools set an
automatic qualifying time for the NCAA national meet in Boise, Idaho, on March 9, including Kansas.
The 4x4 relay team of Denesha Morris, Paris Daniels, Diamond Dixon and Taylor Washington did not win the event title, but still managed to punch their ticket to Boise, along with LSU, Arkansas and Texas. These teams are now the four fastest in the nation, and the only teams that have automatically qualified for nationals.
Senior Rebeka Stowe once again established herself as the University's
fastest 3,000-meter runner in history.
Stowe broke former teammate Lauren Bonds' record.
In Washington, junior Andrea Geubelle won another title in the triple jump. Her best jump of the day was just an inch short of her best this season, which is the second-best jump in the nation so far. Geubelle also finished second in the long jump, with fellow Jayhawk horizontal jumper junior Francine Simpson winning the competition.
Max Goodwin