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KANSAN.COM / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2010 / SPORTS
3B
DAVIS (CONTINUED FROM 1B)
coach has been pushing her to play otherwise.
"You need to be really aggressive to play in the Big 12," Davis said.
With her newfound aggression, Davis has elevated her game to once unprecedented levels and earned a starting spot.
"A month ago, maybe even three weeks ago, she was not prepared to do this," Henrickson said.
Now, despite Goodrich's injury, Kansas looks deeper than ever at the post position.
"I've never had a kid, from the first day of practice to now, improve as much as she has improved," Henrickson said.
If Davis continues to start and repeats Sunday's statistics, Henrickson will hold a world of ability past her starting five. With junior forward Nicollette Smith and the aforementioned Boogaard all coming off the bench, Henrickson holds a full artillery of capable second options.
A three-way point guard collaboration of Jacobs, junior Rhea Codio and senior Sade Morris might equate to a thinner, Goodrich-less back-court. However, a front court featuring Boogaard, Smith, sophomore forward Aishah Sutherland and Davis can compete with the physicality and skill of the Big 12's finest post players.
"That's going to help us out in the long run." Jacobs said.
Davis said that having Boogaard in practice had helped her round out and refine her skill set.
"She's helping me become stronger, because I have to be strong to play against her," Davis said.
At the beginning of the season, Boogaard was the unquestioned starting center and proved it in practice. One month later, Davis was the starter and playing against Boogaard a little differently.
"I learn from all of her mistakes and she can learn from mine," Davis said. "Now in practice, I can score on her and stop her consistently."
Now, the two will push each other for one starting position.
"I'm not going to say who is going to start on Wednesday. It's a great competition," Henrickson said. "We haven't had two bigs at that size or length that we've been able to play here."
Finding one starting position for Boogaard or Davis isn't a bad problem for Henrickson to have. But as long as Davis plays the role of the aggressor, starter or reserve, the minutes will come.
probly fuss at her more. She hao a lot of good tools to be successful, but she had to change her mind-set. She had to be more comfortable attacking and being assertive here," Henrickson said pointing to the court in Allen Fieldhouse. "And then she can be the one lovable Carolyn Davis outside."
"We fuss at her, sure, and I
Edited by Kirsten Hudson
Key to the game
Offense
Simply put, Kansas needs to run an effective and efficient offense to have a chance to upset the No. 20 Iowa State Cyclones on their home court. Iowa State currently leads the Big 12 in scoring defense and allows only 52.8 points per game. To counter that, Kansas will need to look to its seniors and newly appointed starting point guard LaChelda Jacobs to find open players and avoid turnovers. Kansas cannot afford to have many empty possessions.
Keep an eye on
Sade Morris
In the event that both senior guard LaChelda Jacobs and junior guard Rhea Codio struggle to command the Jayhawks' offense, senior guard Sade Morris will take over at the helm. Morris brings a little more of an aggressive style to the point guard position as she looks to score more often than her counterparts. Kansas fans saw a brief preview of this in the closing minutes against Missouri when Morris scored 10 of her 15 points in the final eight minutes while running the offense.
Opponent to watch
Alison Lacey
Iowa State senior guard Alison Lacey poses a huge threat for the Jayhawks. She is in the top five of the Big 12 in scoring average and assists average, and leads the conference in free throw percentage. To top it off, Lacey rarely makes mistakes as she also has the highest assist to turnover ratio in the Big 12. Kansas struggled to defend Oklahoma State's Andrea Riley, a player similar to Lacey, allowing the Cowgirls senior guard to score 30 points in a 70-68 loss. Kansas senior guard Danielle McCray went toe to toe with Riley the entire game and will have to do that against Lacey if Kansas hopes to even its conference record.
Quote of the day
Andrew Taylor
"We've got a shopping list of things we can be better at, and we can do that overnight with a change of a mindset."
— Coach Bonnie Henrickson
NHL
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Toronto Maple Leaf left wing Alexei Pinakovsky celebrates as he skates through his second goal against Atlanta Thrashers goaltender Ondrej Pavelec during the first period Tuesday night. Pinakovsky's efforts weren't enough at Atlanta won 4-3.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Atlanta scores four goals in victory against Toronto
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ATLANTA — Ilya Kovalchuk scored two goals, giving him 30 for the season, and the Atlanta Thrashers beat Toronto 4-3 on Tuesday night to extend the Maple Leafs' road woes.
The Thrashers scored four straight goals after Alexei Ponikarovsky's two first-period goals in a span of 32 seconds.
Pavelec, who stopped 37 shots, held on for his third win in his past four starts.
Rich Peverley's power-play goal 28 seconds into the third period broke a 2-2 tie. KovalchuK's second goal gave Atlanta a 4-2 lead 4:20 into the third period.
Vesa Toskala stopped 28 shots in his first regulation loss in nine career games against Atlanta.
Toronto's Niklas Hagman scored 1:23 later, but Ondrei
Kovalchuk and Evander Kane had second-period goals for Atlanta.
Toronto has allowed 13 goals in the first three games of its five-game road trip. It leads the league with 177 goals allowed.
The Maple Leafs have won only two of their last 12 road games, including their 4-3 win at Nashville on Monday night.
Ponikarovsky continued his history of strong play against the
Thrasher's. He had two goals and an assist in Toronto's 5-2 home win over the Thrasher's on Dec. 7. He has 15 goals — more than against any other team — in 21 career games against Atlanta.
Kovalchuk, who had a streak of goals in three straight games end with Monday night's 1-0 loss at Florida, fired a shot from beyond the left circle past Toskala for the Thrasher's first goal 2:43 into the second period. His third-period goal was deflected into the net off Toskala's pads.
Garnet Exelby, who played for Atlanta from 2002-09, made his return to Philips Arena with the Maple Leafs.
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