SPORTS
University Daily Kansan / Monday, February 10, 1992
9
Missed free throws doom Jayhawks
By Lyle Niedens
Kansasass guard Greg Gurley, left, helps an official restrain Oklahoma State center Bryant Reeves as OSU Forward Bryon Houston voices his opinion.
Kansan sportswriter
STILLWATER, Okla.—At his weekly news conference Wednesday, Kansas basketball coach Roy Williams was asked if he thought the Jayhawks could shoot free throws as poorly as they did in their victory against Kansas State last Monday and still beat No. 2 Oklahoma State.
Williams shook his head and said no. Unfortunately, the Jayhaws performance on Saturday proved Williams knew what he was talking about. Kansas lost to 64-56 to the Cowboys, shooting 30 percent from the foul line.
Williams said Kansas' problems stemmed from a combination of the Jayhawks' inability to execute and the Nets' man-to-man pressure defense.
Fifty-two fouls were called in the game, which at times resembled more of a barroom brawl than a basketball game. They throw shooting became a key factor.
The Cowboys made 20 more free throws than Kansas, which made only 7 of 23 from the foul line. At one point in the first half, the Jayhawks missed seven straight foul shots, and for the game, Kansas missed five front ends of one-and-one opportunities.
"You can't beat a team by shooting 30 percent from the line," Williams said, "and you can't beat a team by putting them on the line, either. We've got to stop putting people on the foul line."
It was a poor shooting day all-around
the Jayhawks, who shot a season-
on target.
"I've said many times I'm impressed by their defense," Williams said. "I think they did take us out of our game, but not happy with the way we played."
Oklahoma State All-American candidate Byron Houston played just 23 minutes because of foul trouble The Jayhawks, who held the Cowboys to 39 percent shooting, held the 6-foot-7 forward to 14 points and six rebounds.
However, senior guard Sean Sutton,
one of Oklahoma State coach Eddie Sut-
ton.
ton, picked up the slack for the Cowboys. Coach Sutton said the teams' intensity levels matched those of an NCAA Tournament game.
"I told our staff 10 minutes into the game that I had never coached in a game where the intensity level was that he said, "And it never slacked off."
The Cowboys, who led just 31-26 at halftime, pushed their lead to 17 points, 49-32, with 11 minutes and 34 seconds left in the second half. But Kansas battled back.
The Jayhawks cut the lead to six, 54-48, with 3:19 left and had an opportunity to cut the lead to four, but center Greg Ostertag missed the front end of a one-and-one.
Sixteen seconds later, Sean Suttonhit a layup on which he was hefouled by Adonis Jordan. He made the free throw, increasing the Cowbies' lead to nine. The Jayhawks never got closer than eight after that.
Kansas 56
Player | M | FG | FT | R A | F T | TP |
Jimmison | 3 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
Scott | 21 | 4/6 | 0/5 | 6 | 1 | 4 |
Paulley | 14 | 4/1 | 0/2 | 2 | 2 | 8 |
Jauley | 16 | 0/1 | 1/2 | 8 | 1 | 1 |
Jordan | 36 | 4/14 | 1/2 | 5 | 3 | 4 |
Woodberry | 30 | 5/10 | 0/2 | 5 | 1 | 2 |
Davis | 11 | 0/3 | 0/2 | 2 | 0 | 5 |
Ostratg | 17 | 1/4 | 2/3 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
Gurley | 3 | 0/0 | 0/0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Iohanning | 3 | 0/0 | 0/1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Oklahoma State 64
Percentages: FG 40% (22/55), FP 30%
Three-point goals: 5/13 (Walters 2, Jordan 2,
Woodbury 1)
rhouston 23 49 4/9 6/10 6 0/4 14 4
Reeves 27 1/3 6/10 21 2 0/4 14
Williams 31 2/9 6/7 2 2 2/4 14
Alexander 32 3/4 6/7 1/2 2 2/4 12
Sutton 36 5/9 5/8 0 1 1 16
Hatcher 23 0/4 5/8 0 1 1 32
Brown 16 1/2 2/4 0 2 0 2
Brown 16 1/2 2/4 0 2 0 2
Pell 1 0/0 1/4 0 1 0 0
Percentages: FG 40% (17/43), FT 69% (27/39)
Three-point goals: 3/10 (Williams, Alexander,
Satton)
Brian T. Schoeni / Special to the KANSAN
Kansas guard Adonis Jordan applies defensive pressure to Oklahoma State guard Cornei Williams.
Brawling play scars heavyweight matchup
STILLWATER, Okla. — Driving to Stillwater for Saturday's game, I saw an Oklahoma promotional billboard in a store to "Discover the Excellence
The challenge posed on that sign at the Kansas-Oklahoma border seemed reasonable. I expected nothing short of college basketball excellence at Gallagher-Iba Arena on Saturday between the No. 2 and No. 3 teams in the country.
Manhattan.
Like any other basketball fanatic, I eagerly awaited the Oklahoma State-Kansas game. It surely would be a classic confrontation between the strong, physical play of the Cowboys and the Jayhawks' transition game and pressing defense. With a victory, the Jayhawks could cruise towards yet another Big Eight Conference championship.
Unfortunately, I would have had a shorter drive and would have been more entertained watching Kansas State's victory against Nebraska in
At least they played basketball there instead of something resembling championship wrestling of the World Wresting Federation.
The grusome facts from the Stillwater brawl speak for themselves:
- There were 52 personal fouls called in 40 minutes of play, an average of 1.3 fouls a minute.
- Several physical exchanges ensued. Kansassenior forward Alonzo Jamison crashed into Oklahoma State's junior forward Milton Brown, who had taken a Kansas turnover and was breaking free for a layup. Unfortunately, Jamison also crashed into the goal support on the play, spraining his knee and slowing him down for the rest of the game.
Also, Oklahoma State's senior swinger Cornell Hatchert tumbled to the floor after receiving an elbow from Kansas junior guard Rex Walters.
- Both Kansas and Oklahoma State shot 40 percent from the field.
- Kansas was successful on 30 percent of its free-throw attempts, making 7 of 12. In the Jayhawks' last two games, they hit 15 of 44 free throws for 34 percent.
- There were a total of 36 turnovers, 16 by Kansas and 20 by Oklahoma State.
"It was a war out there today, like an NCAA game," Oklahoma State coach Eddie Sutton said. "If Kansas wins today, the race is over." I'm sure everyone in the Big Eight was cheering for us today."
Oklahoma State's defense was intimidating and deserved credit for
their performance. And yes, the number of fouls called halted the flow of the Kansas running game. But the Jayhawks had their chances to escape the unfriendly confines of Gallagher-Iba with a victory by burying their free throws.
Instead, Saturday's performance at the free-throw line was once again morbid, and this time, it cost the Jayhawks a victory.
The only saving grace in the Kansas performance was its gutsy attempt to come back from 17 points down with 11 minutes and 34 seconds left to play in the game. They had a chance to trim the Oklahoma State lead to four at the 3:19 mark, but freshman center Greg Ostertag missed the front end of a one-and-one. From that point on, it was lights out.
"I'm not happy with the way we played, and we have to execute much better," Kansas coach Roy Williams said. "Our guys never got into a rhythm."
Kansas women conquer Oklahoma State 73-64
Bv Codv Holt
Kansan sportswriter
The Kansas women's basketball team completed a season sweep of the Oklahoma State Cowboys 76-34 Saturday at Allen Field House for the first time since 1986. Kansas defeated Oklahoma State 64-60. Jin in Stillwater.
No. 17 Kansas notched its seventh straight victory, Junior guard Stacy Truitt scored 20 points, tying her career high. Truitt scored 10 of her career-high 20 points in the last 5 minutes of the game to seal Kansas' victory.
Truitt credited much of her success to Coach Marian Washington, who gave Truitt a pep talk at halftime after
Truitt scored only four points in the first half.
"Coach gave me an edge in the second half because my shot was off in the first half." Truitt said. "She told me he went in the ball and after that I wanted it bad."
Senior guard Kay Kay Hart added 17 points, including three three-pointers. Junior guard Shannon Kite also hit three three-pointers as Kansas' backcourt accounted for 48 of the 73 points.
Oklahoma State relied on its inside game for 42 of its 64 points. The team was led by senior forward Susanne Rosson with 18 points. Junior center Lisa McGill, the conference's leading rebounder and third-ranking scorer
Kansas' defense held McGill below her season average of 18 points for the second time this season. McGill scored 16 points in the teams' first meeting this year.
added 14 points.
Washington credited senior forward Terrilyn Johnson with the Jayhawks' success defending McGill.
"She did great," Washington said. "Terrilyn often gets overlooked but she did a superb job and is a big reason we won this game."
Johnson led the Jayhawks with eight rebounds and five steals. She leads the Jayhawks in both categories this season, averaging 9.2 rebounds and 3.17 steals a game. Her average of 3.17
Oklahoma State, defending Big Eight regular season and tournament champions, defeated Kansas three times last year, including a 74-63 victory against the Jayhawks in the final of the Big Eight Tournament.
steals a game ranks her first in the conference.
Kansas, 18-3 overall and 7-1 in conference play, continues to lead the conference standings. Nebraska remains in second place at 16-5 and 5-2.
Kansas returns to the road this week to battle Colorado and Iowa State on Wednesday and Saturday, respectively.
Olympic medals count
Country G S B T
Austria 2 1 2 5
Germany 1 1 0 2
Unified Team* 1 0 1 2
Finland 0 1 1 2
France 0 1 0 1
Italy 0 0 0 0
Netherlands 0 0 0 0
Sweden 0 0 0 0
Switzerland 0 0 0 0
U.S. 0 0 0 0
- Russia, Ukraine, Belarus
Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan
Swedes eye hockey gold
OLYMPIC BRIEFS
Knight-Ridder Tribum
The United States hockey team finished seventh in the 1984 and 1988 Winter Games after gaining the gold in 1980. It was favored over Italy but trailed 3-2 going into the third period yesterday.
For two periods, the Americans could not shake their Olympic hockey slide. For one period, the Italians could not stop Tim Sweeney.
In that period, Sweeney, who played for the Calgary Flames this season, had one goal and two assists, and the team won 6-3 in their 1992 Olympic opener.
Earlier yesterday, top-seeded Sweden pounded Poland 7-2, and Finland, seeded fifth, knocked off ninth-seeded Germany 5-1.
Sweden won the last three Olympic bronze medals but never a gold. It lost 3-2 against the U.S. team in a pre-Olympic tour-up Wednesday night.
The United States is a long shot for a gold medal, but Sweden has a strong shot.
Sweden was not at its best yesterday, but still cruised by Poland, the best seed in the 12-team tournament.
U.S. skier finishes ninth
It did not take long for A.J. Kitt to put the high hopes of the Winter Olympics behind him.
"This is just one race," the 23-year-old American skier said after his ninth-place finish in yesterday's men's downhill. "I'm not satisfied, but not too disappointed."
Although hopes were high for the Rochester, N.Y., native, Kitt said he figured he would have a hard time finishing in the 15 of because of the difficulty "La Face de Bellevarde" course.
German sets luge record
Georg Hackl of Germany, the 1988 silver medalist, set a course record of 45.190 seconds and took the men's luge lead after two runs at the Winter Olympics yesterday.
Duncan Kennedy of Lake Placid, N.Y., who was considered a medal contender because of his second-place finish in the World Cup circuit, was sixth after his first run but had a rough second run and fell to 10th place with a combined time of 1:31.402.
KU runners dominate Husker Invitational
Kansan Sportswriter
By Jerry Schmidt Kansas State University
The junior from Lawrence won the 5000-meter race with a personal best and school record time of 16:34.32 at the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational on Saturday in Lincoln, Neb., but she was not overly satisfied with the outcome. Saul wanted to qualify for the coming NCAA meet automatically.
Most athletes might be satisfied with a personal best time, a new school record and provisionally qualifying for the NCAA indoor meet. Not Julia Saul.
"It's kind of disappointing to run 25 laps and not get the time you wanted," she said. "It's a matter of getting into the right raco."
Athletes must break a set time or height to automatically qualify for the NCAA meet. If not enough athletes break the set time, the event is filled out with athletes on the provisional list.
Saul was competing against two All-Americans that she thought would push her to a time that would automatically qualify her for the NCAA indoor meet in Indianapolis. She was banking on Jamie Parks of Arkansas and Sandy Hamm of Colorado for that push.
"The race went out slower than I expected," she said. "They started out slow and after four laps I moved out and tried to pick up the pace a little. No one came with me."
Michael Cox, a sophomore from Hannibal, Mo., had a similar situation in the 3000-meter run. He won the race with a time of 8:14,89, a personal best, but was not challenged.
"I pretty much took it from the gun," Cox said. "I wanted to run at a 65 second-per-quarter pace and the field didn’t."
Kansas coach Gary Schwartz said Cox and Saul were far better than the rest of the field.
"Both Mike and Julia dominated their races, 'Schwartz said. "I felt they would have run faster if someone was pushing them."
Kathy Palacios, a senior from Oak Brook, Illinois, also set a school record and provisionally qualified for the NCAA meet. Palacios finished fifth in the 300-meter race with a time of 9:33.24.
Also provisionally qualifying for the NCAA meet was the men's s 4 x 80 meter relay team of Cox, Jon Handy, Jason Teal and Dan Waters. With a time of 7:31.33, the team finished second but was leading until it was edged by Georgetown. Schwartz said.
Schwartz said he was pleased with the results of the meet.
"All in all it was a positive meet," he said. "We had some really good events that didn't show high places. We are heading in the right direction."
The Jayhawks will compete in their fifth indoor meet of the season on Feb. 15 at Manhattan
Chris Jenson contributed information to this story.
Magic earns All-Star MVP
The Associated Press
ORLANDO, Fla. -- At long last, it was Earvin "Magic" Johnson's day and the Western Conference's All-Star game.
Johnson, after an emotional pregame welcome from NBA All-Stars on both teams, showed no rustiness yesterday from the three-month layoff after his shocking announcement Nov. 7 that he contracted HIV.
Johnson led the West team to a 153-113 victory and earned the Most Valuable Player honor for the second time. It was only the fourth win in the last 13 years by the West.
Shooting 6 for 7 from the field, Johnson scored 16 of his 25 points in the first 17 minutes of the game. He hit three consecutive three-pointers in the final 2 minutes and 42 seconds to finish 9 for 12 from the field.
"Maybe you'll see me back, maybe
you won't t," Johnson told the fans after being presented with the MVP award. "But I'll remember all these good times this afternoon."
Johnson, named a starter in fan voting despite his retirement, also plans to play in next summer's Olympic Games and has left the door open to a comeback with the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Westest 79-55 at halftime, shooting 63.5 percent to 45.5 for the East.
The West went on to match the scoring record for a regulation All-Star game. The West won 153-131 in 1961 and the East scored 154 points in overtime games.
Johnson led eight players in double figures, including Clyde Drexler with 22 and David Robinson with 19. Michael Jordan scored 18 and Thomas 15 for the East.