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SPORTS WEDNESDAY,FEBRUARY 10,2010 / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / KANSAN.COM
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Jayhawks eager for shot at upset
BY MAX ROTHMAN
mrothman@kansan.com
twitter.com/maxrothman
Freshman forward Carolyn Davis battles to maintain possession of the ball against Kansas State guard Mariah White. Davis' defense will be crucial against senior forward Kelsey Griffin and Nebraska.
Nebraska, the only undefeated team in women's basketball, comes to Allen Fieldhouse tonight at 7. Maybe it's youthful ignorance, but Kansas likes its chances.
"We're gonna beat em," freshman forward Carolyn Davis said.
"I actually want to play them undefeated," freshman guard Monica Engelman said. "It will make the game even more exciting."
The Jayhawks are using the third-ranked Cornhuskers' prowess as motivation rather than hiding from it.
Jerry Wang/KANSAN
Engelman and other eager Jayhawks beware: The Cornhuskers aren't escaping with victories. They're whooping the competition. Trailing only the aforementioned Connecticut
Nebraska is second in the nation in scoring differential. The Cornhuskers win by an average of 23.6 points per game.
For Kansas to stand a chance, it must find a way to relinquish far less than its season average of 17 turnovers per game.
NO. 3 NEBRASKA VS KANSAS
"They don't beat themselves," coach Bonnie Henrickson said.
"We want them to come in undefeated because we want to be the team to say that we beat them."
WHEN: 7 p.m.
WHERE: Allen Fieldhouse
Senior forward Kelsey Griffin leads an experienced and balanced Nebraska lineup, which features 10 players who average at least a minutes per game. Nine of those
10 are upperclassmen.
The Danielle McCray-less Jayhawks don't have that kind of tenure. Freshmen Davis and Engelman led Kansas to Sunday's 70-60 victory against Kansas State. The youngsters have some skills, but when the clock is ticking down experience is immeasurable. Where will the Jayhawks turn when trailing by one point and holding the ball with 10 sec
CAROLYN DAVIS Freshman forward
onds to go?
The seasoned Cornhuskers don't have that problem.
"In crunch time it's going to Kelsey Griffin and she's going to take it and
make a big, shot," Henrickson said.
To prevent this scenario, the Jayhaws must play to the same strengths that led them to victory against the Wildcats. In improving to 4-4 in the Big 12, Kansas attacked the basket inside.
"We've been looking at more options in different offensive sets in getting the ball to the low posts," junior forward Nicollette Smith said.
Davis is the first choice in these post-oriented sets. She's most effective with constant looks early
in the shot clock.
Since moving into the starting lineup Jan. 17 in a 72-59 victory against Missouri, Davis has averaged 12.5 points and 7.7 rebounds per game.
Riding a hot streak like that will get anyone chomping at
the bit to get a crack at a team such as the Cornhuskers.
"We want them to come in undefeated," Davis said, "because we want to be the team to say that we beat them."
Edited by Taylor Bern
Key to the game
Post play
With the injury to senior guard Danielle McCray the Jayhawks have already shown an increased tendency to get the ball inside to their post players. Kansas may experience some difficulty doing that again as No. 3 Nebraska boasts one of the premier forwards in the country in senior Kelsey Griffin. Although Griffin poses somewhat of a defensive challenge to the Jayhawks, the true threat lies in her offensive capabilities. Freshman forward Carolyn Davis had a career-high four blocks against Kansas State and she may need a similar performance to help control Griffin.
Keep an eye on
Monica Engelman
Freshman guard Monica Engelman has some very big shoes to fill for the rest of the season, taking over McCray's spot on the roster. In Engelman's first start Sunday she played the best game of her short career. She led the Jayhawks with a team-high 16 points and five assists. Engelman will need another outstanding game if the Jayhawks hope to upset the third-ranked Cornhuskers.
Engelman
Opponent to watch
Kelsey Griffin
Griffin is the guiding force behind Nebraska's stellar season. Through 21 victories Griffin nearly averages a double-double, recording 19.4 points and 9.9 rebounds per game. Griffin took a redshirt last season to rehab her torn ACL. In her last game against Kansas in the 2008 Big 12 Tournament, Griffin torched the Jayhawk defense for 21 points.
Griffin
Quote of the day
"It's a really good locker room. You can't ever diminish what that feels like. Now we get to feel like that until midnight, because, yeah, we've got a pretty good team coming in here on Wednesday."
Cochrane Bonnie Henrickson after Sunbury's 70-60 victory against Kansas State
Prediction
Nebraska 78, Kansas 65
NHL
By Andrew Taylor
Oklahoma City gets hockey next season
OKLAHOMA CITY — Pro hockey will return to Oklahoma City starting next season — and at a higher level.
Representatives of Prodigal Hockey LLC and the NHL's Edmonton Oilers said Tuesday that Oklahoma City would be
the home of the Oilers' American Hockey League franchise, which has been dormant since 2005. The Oilers will let their affiliation agreement with an AHL team in Springfield, Mass., expire at the end of this season.
The AHL unanimously approved the plan on Monday.
The announcement culminated more than a year and a half of negotiations between Prodigal Hockey and the Oilers.The new
team, which will play at the downtown Cox Convention Center, does not yet have a nickname. Prodigal Hockey President Bob Funk Jr. said the team's fans will have input in that area.
"We want to maintain our ties to Oklahoma City in terms of the hockey history," Funk said."This has been a great hockey town since the 1960s and we want to maintain that connection."
Associated Press
ASSOCIATED PRESS
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Illini notch another top-15 win
Illinois' Bill Cole, top, pulls down a defensive rebound over Wisconsin's Jason Bohannon during the second half of the Illini's 63-56 upset victory. This was Illinois' second straight victory against a top-15 ranked team.
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Illinois victory ends Wisconsin's 18-game home winning streak
This one may have been better, because the Illini are now in prime position to challenge the Spartans for the regular-season conference crown. The schedule isn't easy for Illinois, which plays four more ranked teams in its final six games, including two games with No. 13 Ohio State and a rematch with the Badgers in the regular-season finale.
MADISON, Wis. — Demetri McCamey scored 27 points and Mike Tisdale added 19 on 8-of-11 shooting to lead Illinois to a 63-56 upset against No. 11 Wisconsin on Tuesday night, snapping the Badgers' 51-0 home record against unranked Big Ten opponents under coach Bo Ryan.
It was a shock for Wisconsin (18-6, 8-4), which got 15 points from Jason Bohannon, including 13 in the second half, and 12 from Trevon Hughes.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Illini (17-8, 9-3) became the first team to beat Ryan three times at the Kohl Center after wins in 2005 and 2006 and ended Wisconsin's 18-game home winning streak. More important, Illinois won its fifth straight game after a 78-73 victory against then-No. 5 Michigan State on Saturday that featured fans rushing the court.
The Badgers built a 22-11 lead while only Tisdale could find the basket, hitting every field goal for the Illini until just over 6 minutes to play in the first half.
That's when McCamey took over.
McCamey, the Big Ten player of the week for his performances against Iowa and the Spartans, scored 15 of Illinois' final 20 points of the half and the Illini hit 10 consecutive shots straddling halftime to erase the double-digit deficit.
The Badgers missed nine consecutive shots down the stretch, including a layup by Taylor with just over 2 minutes to play and 3s by Keaton Nankivil, Taylor and Bohannon.
McCamey hit one free throw with 58 seconds left and Richardson hit two more to seal it.