Sports
12A
The University Daily Kansan
Monday, March 1, 2004
Jayhawks win with team effort
Kansas reserve players chip in power and points
By Ryan Greene
green@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
The last time the Jayhawks had at least 21 points from their bench was the 96-77 pounding of Texas Tech on Feb.7.
Freshman guard J.R. Giddens was also hurting and spent the majority of the second half on the bench.
That was the exact number of points the reserves poured in for Kansas (18-7 overall, 10-4 Big 12 Conference) in the 79-58 victory over Oklahoma (16-9, 7-8) yesterday at Allen Fieldhouse.
The effort from the bench could not have come at a better time for the Jayhawks, Freshman forward David Padgett was in early foul trouble and hurt his right ankle with 9:46 left in the game.
Enter Jeff Graves and Mike Lee.
Enter jon The duo recorded 16 points, 11 rebounds and six assists which gave the Jayhawks the depth they have been missing for the past couple of weeks.
weeks.
"It's big because lately the point production has been slim and pretty much nothing," Lee said. "To come out and do that: it feels good."
Juniors Keith Langford and Wayne Simien scored the first 15 of the Jayhawks' first 18 points, and helped open a 20-7 lead just eight minutes into the contest.
Kir Leffler/Kansan
The Sooners brought their signature rough-and-tumble style to the floor. Behind guards Drew Lavender and Jason Detrick, Oklahoma was able to get back as close as four points before going into the locker room trailing 36-31.
SEE RESERVE ON PAGE 8A
Jeff Graves sank a dunk after recovering a turnover during the first half of yesterday's game against Oklahoma. Graves concluded the game with 4 total points.
Team rebounds with much-needed victory over Oklahoma Sooners
By Mike Norris
mnorris@kansan.com
Kansan sportswriter
Juniors Wayne Simien, Keith Langford and Aaron Miles all turned in their regular top-notch performances yesterday in the Jayhawks' 79-58 defeat of Oklahoma.
But, for the first time in a while, they got a little help.
Junior guard Mike Lee, who had scored just nine points in his last five games, scored all 12 of his points in the second half while knocking down five of his seven shot attempts for the game.
Lee's performance came just one game after the entire Jayhawk bench scored only two points in an 82-67 loss
at Texas.
"Mike was huge," Langford said. "That has to be a consistent factor for us."
The bench has been anything but consistent for the Jayhawks this season. But Lee proved the Jayhawks are more than just their top five players. And the sold-out Jayhawk crowd took notice.
Lee received a standing ovation as he left the game for good with just over three minutes remaining in the second half. This was a big change from earlier in the game.
Kansas coach Bill Self had pulled Lee out of the game right after he committed an early turnover.
A day of goodbyes
SEE VICTORY ON PAGE 8A
Season's last home game ends in Jayhawk loss on Senior Day
By Jonathan Kealing
jkealing@kansan.com
kansan sportswriter
Everyone wanted this one. Ask any Kansas women's basketball player and they'll tell you, they wanted this one. Departing senior Leila Menguc and retiring coach Marian Washington wanted this one.
the crowd applauded women's basketball coach Marian Washington during a ceremony honoring her before the women's basketball game on Saturday in Allen Fieldhouse. Washington retired from her coaching position Friday after a medical leave of absence.
Alas, it was not to be. Kansas lost to the visiting Nebraska cornhuskers 65-61 on Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse. Kansas (9-17, 2-13 Big 12 Conference)
Jeff Brandated/Kansan
For more coverage of Kansas women's basketball's senior day loss turn to page 7A.
came out with passion and trailed by only four until 15:29 remained in the first half.
At that point it took a lead that would grow all the way to seven points before Nebraska (17-9, 7-8 Big 1) wrestled it away from them. Nebraska took a five point lead into the locker room at half and never looked back.
Kansas had many chances to put up points early in the game but missed converting many.
"Missing point blank lay-ups, you can't get a better shot than that," interim head coach Lynette Woodard said. "And we missed several of those in the first half that really would have helped us."
When the teams came out for the second half, Kansas seemed a little flat. It looked like the Jayhawks knew their season was almost over.
season was timed Kansas watched the lead grow from five to nine, before it made a stand. With 11:30 remaining in the game. Kansas knocked the lead down to three after sophomore forward Crystal Kemp nailed a jumper.
Kemp, the team's leading scorer
and one of only two players to start 25 games this season, scored 24 points in the game and pulled down seven boards. She shot almost 70 percent from the field and went 2-2 from the line.
With :32 left in the game, the Jayhawks were able to pull within one, after sophomore forward Tamara Ransburg hit two from the free-throw line. As a team, Kansas was perfect from the line, going 6-6.
"Crystal Kemp, she just had a brilliant day," Woodard said. "She played very hard. She put her heart out there."
That was as close as they would get.
toob down the court and "We all have to stay more focused and stick to the game plan," Mengüç said.
The teams traded points until Nebraska put up the final two points on a long job down the court as time ran out.
The team committed 16 turnovers and gave up 20 points off of them. Nebraska committed just 12 turnovers and allowed only 10 points for them.
Last time the two teams met, Kansas led early but was dominated overall, due to an inability to consistently put the ball in the net. Kemp placed a lot of emphasis on scoring droughts as a source of Saturday's defeat.
"I think it was one of our dry spells again," she said. "They'd score, but we wouldn't respond back. They just had that edge and momentum going in."
The Jayhawk were hurt by their inability to hit shots from beyond the three-point arc. Usually-consistent sophomore guard Erica Hallman went a dismal 1-5 from way out and was the only Jayhawk to sink a threeball.
Junior guard Aquanita Burras also scored in double figures with 10 points. Ransburg pulled down a team-leading nine boards and added eight points.
sports commentary
- Edited by Ashley Arnold
Jesse Newell jnewell@kansan.com
Washington remembered for caring
With her retirement, it is only proper for me to refer to coach Marian Washington by her official title.
So, for this column, I will simply call her Marian, like so many others have.
She was personal. She was honest. She was caring.
She was just Marian.
She was just mature. It would be unfair to reflect on Marian's coaching abilities, as incorrect as this may sound. With more than 550 career victories, it would be easy to list off those accomplishments and say she was a great coach — which, undoubtedly, she was.
But the better story is Marian the person. This is what many people don't know but should.
I will forever remember Marian because of one event. After a practice, she made a quick exit, retreating to her office. I asked Beau White, the sports information director for women's basketball, if there would be any way possible to get a few words with her. I didn't expect much.
See, there are a few certain expectations between the media and coaches at the Division I level. Coaches know the media's job is to ask the tough questions, question the tough decisions, and decide what the coach could and should have done.
Understandably, coaches often come to the media frustrated and tired. The questions seem to never end. The answers never seem to be good enough.
SEE NEWELL ON PAGE 7A
In the dust: Sprinter breaks national record
By Michael Phillips
mphillips@kansan.com
Kansas sportswriter
Running a scorching 20.58 in the 200 meters, Kansas sprinter Leo Bookman set a new Big 12 Championship record and won the conference championship in Lincoln. Neb., Saturday.
Bookman, a senior, ran the best time in the nation and the third fastest time in the world this year, according to the
International Association of Athletics Federations.
Bookman was competing along with the rest of the Kansas track team at the Big 12 Championships, held in the Bob Devaney Sports Center in Lincoln.
All-Big 12 honors went to 15 Jayhawks, of whom only three are seniors.
The Kansas women's team finished seventh, while the men came in ninth.
Bookman was not the only record breaker for Kansas this weekend.
Freshman Tiffany Cherry broke the KU indoor record in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.63 in the semifinals.
Cherry finished a solid eighth over all.
Two more Jayhawks, Laura Lavioie and Brooklyn Hann, scored NCAA provisional qualifying marks.
Lavioe, a senior, finished third over all in the mile run with a season-best
time of 4:46.43.
The women's 4X400-meter relay team also finished third, and its time of 3:42.32 is the third-fastest in Kansas indoor history.
In the triple jump, Hann finished third with her mark of 41-09.75.
Coach Stanley Redwine said he
The relay team consisted of Kim Clark, Stacy Keller, Brooklyn Hann and Octavia Garrett.
Her teammate Megan Manthe finished seventh in the same event.
was encouraged by the 12 underclassmen who received All-Big 12 honors, and that the team still had one more opportunity to make the NCAA tournament.
That opportunity will come at the Iowa State Invitational in Ames, Iowa.
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The meet will be next Saturday, one week before the NCAA Indoor Championships begin.
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- Edited by Meghan Brune
TALK TO SPORTS: Contact Henry C. Jackson or Maggie Newcomer at SPORTS@KANSAN.COM
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