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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY DECEMBER 8,2014
PAGE 7
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Jayhawks end No.10 California's undefeated streak
SCOTT CHASEN
@SChasenKU
"This team needs to grow up and find our competitive spirit on [the defensive] side of the floor."
that was the message from head coach Bonnie Henrickson to the Kansas women's basketball team following an 85-80 home defeat to the Alabama Crimson Tide. Just 16 days later, the team has done exactly that — they've grown up.
Yesterday, the California Golden Bears entered Allen Fieldhouse ranked No. 10 in the country, looking to start the season off with eight consecutive wins.
California came into the game with one of the nation's best players, Reshanda Gray, who was 34th in the nation in scoring, at over 20 points per game. The Jayhawks (7-2) were up to the task as they dominated the game from the start, defeating the undefeated Golden Bears, 62-39, on Sunday evening in Allen Fieldhouse.
"It was totally a Kansas style of game," California head
coach Lindsay Gottlieb said in the postgame press conference. "They made us play in the half court, but we want to get up and down [in transition], and we didn't do a very good job of anything that we wanted to do."
The Golden Bears (7-1) shot just 15-of-62 (24 percent) from the floor, as the Jayhawks really stepped up on the defensive side of the ball. Kansas held California to just 39 points, almost 50 points below its season average of around 90 points per game coming in.
While the jayhawks' stifling defense helped them take a quick lead in the game, as Kansas jumped out to an early 11-4 advantage. Henrickson noted that defense wasn't the only area that the team thrived in.
"Your defense can be the reason you win, but your offense is going to tell you how much you win by," Henrickson said. "We're growing and building and trying to become a better team, [and overall] I thought we did a really good job."
Senior guard Asia Boyd gets on the ground for a loose ball in the second half of the Friday, Nov. 21, game against Alabama in Allen Fieldhouse. Boyd finished with 13 points in the Jayhawks' 62-39 victory against California.
got the job done at the free-throw line, hitting 19 of 20 foul shots. The impressive shooting performance came just three days after the Jayhawks made less than 50 percent of their free throws against Incarnate Word, and afterward senior forward Chelsea Gardner admitted that it was more mental than anything.
The lajhawks shot a blistering 85.7 percent from 3-point range in the first half, and they
MISSY MINEAR/KANSAN
"I think it's a focus thing," Gardner said. "Coach has been saying that we've struggling at the line, [and finally we're] just knocking down free throws and focusing."
Carder ended with a game-high 22 points, going 8-for-8 at the free-throw line, as the Jayhawks upset a top-10 ranked opponent inside Allen Fieldhouse for the second straight year.
Kansas also got big performances out of senior guards Asia Boyd and Natalie Knight, who chipped in with a combined 22 points and 14 rebounds, while shooting 6-of-7 from behind the arc. When asked about how she was able to get so open against the Golden Bears, Boyd had a simple answer.
"Chelsea [Gardner] demands a lot of attention down low, and luckily for me, I get to stand on the backside of her," Boyd said. "When that happens I'm usually just out there by myself."
Boyd provided a big spark for the team, and she even provided the final nail in the proverbial coffin, draining a 30-foot 3-point shot late in the game, with the shot clock buzzer winding down.
The lajayhawks will have to move forward quickly as they'll play a tough Purdue team on
the road Thursday, but considering that two of the Jayhawks last three games have been against top-10 teams, Kansas should be well prepared for the challenge.
Edited by Ashley Peralta
Kansas volleyball upset in first round of NCAA tournament
MATT CORTE
@Corte_UDK
Arkansas Little-Rock, winners of 25 straight, came into the opening round as the small school underdog, but its stature on the volleyball court suggested otherwise.
Using four players 6-foot-2 or taller, the Trojans out blocked the Jayhawks 18.5 to 9.5, as Kansas lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament 25-25, 25-19, 25-22, 18-25, 10-15
at the Kansas Expocentre in Topeka on Friday evening.
"Extremely disappointed," coach Ray Bechard said. "Wasn't our best effort, or best execution, but that's the abruptness of this tournament if you don't play at the level that you really need to play at." Overall the jayhawks committed 40 hitting errors and 10 service errors in the game, all but negating any momentum the team built during the match.
"Once again 40 hitting errors in five sets is too much," Bechard said. "They did a good job physically of blocking and getting in front of us, but we've got to do a better job at taking care of the ball."
Arkansas Little-Rock narrowly edged Kansas in the first set, combining for 8.5 team blocks while the Jayhawks committed 18 total errors.
Whether it was shaking off tournament nerves or becoming familiar with a new opponent, Kansas finally looked like the national No. 16 seed in the second set.
Instead of trying to hit through Trojan blockers, layhawk players took smarter swings and used tips effectively, limiting Arkansas Little-Rock to just two blocks in the set.
ravili rifled off four serves in row, including one ace, as Artansas Little-Rock had no answer for her aggressive serving.
Arkansas Little-Rock senior outsider hitter Edina Begic ended with a match-high 27 kills, but nine of them came in the fourth set, leading the Trojans to its most comfortable set win of the night.
In turn, that led to Kansas winning by a sizable margin at 18-9, but not before the Trojs mounted a run to make the second set look a bit closer.
All season long the Achilles heel for Kansas has been fifth sets, and that weakness reared its ugly head one last time.
Playing in front of a "home" crowd, the Jayhawks looked fatigued and distraught coming into the fifth set, while Arkansas Little-Rock looked just the opposite.
that's on all of us, but they had more energy and they kept it throughout the entire set."
Kansas ended the season with a respectable 22-9 record and finished tied for second in the Big 12 at 10-6. But with Creighton losing to lower-seeded Oregon State earlier, the Jayhawks had a great shot of making back-to-back Sweet Sixteens.
"They had a lot more energy than us," Havili said. "And
"It's going to hurt for a while," Bechard said. "But at some point in time I'm sure we'll look back on this season and appreciate first and foremost the great career of two seniors, and the young group that we had."
The third set featured both teams going point-for-point with each other, until Arkansas Little-Rock opened a small gap at 18-16.
Edited by Brian Hillix
But then freshman setter Ainise Havili stepped in to serve.