6B = THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
SPORTS
MONDAY, MARCH 3, 2003
Eric Braem/Kansan
Kirk Hinrich and Nick Collison, the two seniors on the men's basketball team, greet the crowd during the flower ceremony. Members of the Spirit Squad collected flowers from fans and coated James Naismith Court with them as part of the tradition before the final home game of the year Saturday.
Seniors shine in home finale
By John Domoney
jdomoney@kansan.com
Kansan.scripwriter
Kansas' game against Oklahoma State on Saturday left Nick Collison, Kirk Hinrich and Roy Williams wiping away tears.
The misty eyes were not because of the 79-61 victory for the Jayhawks against the Cowboys. Their reaction was triggered by Collison's and Hinrich's final appearances in Jayhawk uniforms in Allen Fieldhouse.
"People should appreciate Kirk and Nick for turning down the money and coming back to play college basketball," Williams said. "They should appreciate the kind of kids they are on and off the court."
Like so many games in Collison's and Hinrich's Jayhawk careers, the senior duo carried the Jayhawks to victory.
Collison led the Kansas attack on offense with 24 points on 9-of-17 shooting along with 16 rebounds. The senior forward also fell just one blocked shot short of a Kansas single game record with seven blocked shots during his 37 minutes of
play.
In 36 minutes on the court, Hinrich scored 19 points while being guarded by Cowboy Melvin Sanders. Sanders is regarded by many coaches and players as the best defender in the Big 12 Conference.
With 55 seconds remaining in the game and the Jayhawks holding a secure advantage, Williams took Collison and Hinrich out of the game. The two seniors went to the bench to a standing ovation and got a surprise visitor as they sat down.
Cowboy coach Eddie Sutton left his coaching box to congratulate and shake hands with Collison and Hinrich.
"I haven't done that many times, but those two guys are the type of people we would like to recruit as coaches," Sutton said. "I wanted to tell them what they brought not just to Kansas, but to the whole conference."
Williams said he was impressed by Sutton's gesture and relieved the officials did not take exception to Sutton leaving his bench.
"If they had called a technical foul on him for being out of the box, our player would have shot it
After the game Collison and Hinrich gave speeches to the crowd, which stayed glued in their seats to thank the two seniors one last time.
backwards," Williams said.
"When you get up there you basically want to get off the stage because there's so many people up there," Collison said. "I struggle in speech class in front of 20 people, much less 16,000 people."
Hinrich, who got a haircut for the occasion at the insistence of his grandfather, had to end his speech when he thanked his family.
"When I got to my family, I wasn't going to keep talking while I was up there crying, so that was it." Hinrich said.
- Kansas retired the jersey of former player Howard Engleman during a halftime ceremony on Saturday. Engleman played on coach Phog Allen's teams from 1939-41.
The senior forward gave the Jayhawk faithful a performance worth remembering with 24 points, on 9-of-17 shooting, and 16 rebounds.
"He's one of my heroes because at least a couple of years ago he was playing golf walking and holding his bag," Williams said.
Crush
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1B
True to his usual, unassuming demeanor, Collison downplayed his individual performance but said beating a league opponent was a good sendoff.
"We got a win against a good team," he said. "It was kind of like a celebration."
Along with sharing Senior Day honors with Collision before and after the game, Kansas guard Kirk Hinrich also shouldered a large share of the load against Oklahoma State. Despite making just 5-of-18 shots, Hinrich was second on the team with 19 points.
Sophomore guard Keith Langford was the only other Jayhawk to score in double figures.
Notes
— Edited by Michelle Burhenn
Langford had 12 points and eight rebounds, but said the Kansas defense sealed the victory.
Junior forward Jeff Graves had 5 points and 10 rebounds, but his most important stat may have been the three fouls that he didn't get, allowing him to stay in the game and defend Oklahoma State's big men. Graves helped hold Cowboy junior forward Ivan McFarlin and senior forward Andre Williams to a combined 7 points. Both Williams and McFarlin eventually fouled out, while Graves was able to play 24 minutes without getting into foul trouble.
"Since Wayne's out now," he said, "I'm just really trying to step up my game."
"Everyone talks about how good Oklahoma's defense is and how good Oklahoma State's defense is," Langford said. "We take pride in our defense, too."
- Edited by Ryan Wood
Baseball
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1B
Earlier in the day, Flynn hit a home run, his second on the season.
The Blue Raiders, though, added a run in the bottom of the seventh off reliever Brandon Johnson, who suffered the loss for Kansas.
Kansas bounced back from the defeat by downing David Lipscomb 10-4 on Saturday. Junior Ryan Baty and senior Kevin Wheeler hit back-to-back home runs in the first inning, and Kansas would add three more runs in the frame, taking a commanding 5-0 lead in the first and never looking back.
Junior Jake Kauzlarich and Spanish each also hit a home run in the game. It was Kauzlarich's first of the season and Spanish's second.
"Right now, I am just relaxing at the plate, and waiting for a good pitch to hit," Spanish said. "I'm trying to get on base and let my teammates behind me in the batting order do
things offensively."
Senior Pat Holmes picked up the win, allowing four runs on just three hits.
"We played an SEC team on the road and played against a first round draft pick," Price said. "It was a big win for us."
Vanderbilt pitcher Jeremy Sowers was the 20th pick in the 2002 Major League Baseball draft. He did collect a career-high 12 strikeouts but could not manage to pick up the victory.
Yesterday, Kansas outlasted Vanderbilt 4-2, in a victory Price said was a big one.
Wheeler had another solid day at the plate going 2-for-4 including two clutch base hits. Tribble added another hit in the third game of the series, extending his hitting streak to 17 games, just two shy of the school record held by Justin Headly, set in 1996.
"Watching Matt Tribble over these first 17 games has been real special," Price said. "He is swinging the bat real well so far this season."
Women CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1B
The Jayhawks trailed 18-4 going into a timeout with 11:51 left in the first half. After the timeout, Kansas went on an 11-2 run to pull within five, but Missouri answered with a 14-4 run of its own to head into the half with a 34-19 lead.
Kansas was outscored 15-4 in the first six minutes of the second half, and despite a late surge, could not overcome a deficit that got as large as 27 points at 51-24.
"I thought that they set the tempo and we got caught up with it instead of us taking our time and trying to do what we wanted to do," coach Marian Washington said.
Kansas was led by Ransburg, whose 17 points and 13 rebounds amounted to her sixth double-double of the season. Sophomore guard Aquanita Burras scored 11 points, with nine of them coming in the second half. Freshman guard Erica Hallman came off the bench to finish with 11 points as well.
The layhawks played in front of their biggest crowd of the year last Wednesday at Kansas State, with 10,702 fans in Bramlage Coliseum. Saturday's crowd of 3,451 in Missouri's Hearnes Center may not have been as large, but it was just as hostile.
"You gotta keep your mind on the game," Burras said. "You can't worry about the crowd."
The defeat at Missouri was the final regular-season road game for Kansas. The Jayhawks finished 2-6 in conference play away from home and 5-8 overall on the road. Kansas will finish its regular season at home Wednesday against Iowa State.
"I can tell you this — at this time of the year, I had hoped that we'd be playing better, but we've been on the road for two games," Washington said. "We'll have a chance to be at home and see where we really are."
— Edited by Lindsay Hanson
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New Student Orientation would like to congratulate the 2003-04 Orientation Assistant Team:
Pat Bengtson Taylor Brummel Matthew Carazo Corinne Deuel Kristy Klein Maggie Mason Liz Morel
Steve Munch
Jonathan Ng
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Michael Payne
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