Upset denied

By Chuck Woodling     Feb 22, 2007

Courtney Paris is as difficult to move as the Eiffel Tower. Twin sister Ashley Paris is as hard to push as the Arc d’Triomphe.

“They’re huge,” Kansas freshman Sade Morris said. “You can try to put a body on them, but they’re not budging a bit.”

The immovable Paris sisters combined for 48 points and 22 rebounds as No. 13 Oklahoma prevailed over the pesky Jayhawks, 76-70, in KU’s home finale Wednesday night in Allen Fieldhouse.

Morris, a native of Norman, Okla., was playing against her hometown team for the first time and she scored 13 points off the bench, making a career-high 9 of 12 free-throw attempts.

“It was fun. I was excited to play OU,” said the 5-foot-11 Morris. “I just wish we could have come out with a win.”

Morris, incidentally, nearly signed with the Sooners last year.

“It was close,” she said. “It was either them or Kansas, and KU won me over.”

Even though the Jayhawks (9-18 overall, 3-11 Big 12) dug deeper into the conference cellar, they won over OU coach Sherri Coale.

“I thought they fought and scrapped and competed on every single possession for 40 minutes,” Coale said of the Jayhawks.

The problem was that Kansas had no answer for the Paris sisters. All-American Courtney had 32 points – despite making only 8 of 16 free throw attempts – and 13 rebounds. Ashley, an inch shorter than her sibling at 6-3, contributed 16 points and nine boards.

“They’re two kids who are bigger than anybody we have in our program,” KU coach Bonnie Henrickson said.

Henrickson was forced to guard the Paris twins with Taylor McIntosh and Danielle McCray. Both stand 5-11. McIntosh, a junior, played smarter defensively than McCray, who logged only 13 minutes because of foul trouble and eventually fouled out.

McCray, who had scored a career-high 25 points in KU’s double-overtime win Sunday over Kansas State, contributed just eight points.

“Five fouls in 13 minutes,” Henrickson said. “She was trying to block Courtney’s shots, and we don’t have anyone who can block Courtney’s shots.”

With no post presence, it was hardly surprising that guards Shaquina Mosley and Kelly Kohn led the Jayhawks in scoring with 20 and 16 points respectively.

And, while on paper it appeared the Paris sisters – particularly Courtney – were the difference-makers, Henrickson thought OU guard Britney Brown was the catalyst.

“Courtney did about what we thought,” Henrickson said, “but it was too much Britney Brown.”

Brown, a senior who had lost her starting job of freshman Jenna Plumley, came off the bench to score 14 points.

“The world knows about Courtney Paris,” Henrickson said, “but we have to recognize that we need to be good on everyone else. We need to be solid, and we weren’t.”

Still, the Jayhawks were solid until about 5 1/2 minutes remained. At that point, after 21 lead changes, the score was knotted at 57.

That’s when Coale ordered her players to punch their meal tickets.

“There was not one soul in the gym who had a wrong impression of where we were going with the basketball,” Coale said. “Everybody knew, and we were still able to get the ball to Courtney.”

Courtney Paris scored a fourth of her points (eight) after that 57-57 deadlock.

Kansas has two road games remaining in the regular season – Saturday at Colorado and a week from today at Missouri.

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