By Andrew Hartsock     Feb 25, 2001

Kansas University was a team that could ill-afford a case of the Senior Day jitters.

The Jayhawks’ three outgoing women’s basketball seniors Jaclyn Johnson, Jennifer Jackson and Brooke Reves and departing fourth-year junior Nikki White struggled mightily early Saturday.

They finally shrugged off the nerves associated with playing the final home game of their careers too late to prevent a 69-55 loss to Missouri on Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse.

It was KU’s first Senior Day loss since 1990.

“We had a little jitters out there, but that’s part of it,” said Johnson, who scored 18 of her game-high 21 points in the second half. “You always want to play well in front of your family. We just dug too deep a ditch and couldn’t dig out.”

It was more like a canyon early. Kansas had 16 turnovers in the first half and hit just 31.8 percent of its first-half shots. KU went seven minutes between field goals at one stretch midway through the first half and trailed by as many as 22 points late in the first and early in the second half.

KU’s seniors all of whom joined the 1,000-point club this season contributed just nine points on a combined 3-of-11 shooting in the first half.

“We were all a little jittery,” Jackson said. “We forced too many things. We made a run, and we had our chances to get it to nine or seven and never converted. Credit Missouri.”

The Jayhawks, who fell to 10-16 overall and 4-11 in the Big 12, did make a run. Fueled primarily by three-point plays by Johnson, Kansas came as close as 11 points three times in the second half.

“It was always a struggle,” said Reves, who finished with 10 points. “It’s like we were always going against the grain.”

It’s been that kind of year for the Jayhawks. Three of the four players honored Saturday Jackson, Johnson and White were key components of the 1997-98 team, which went to the first NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 in school history. Reves, a transfer from Wichita State, sat out that season under NCAA transfer rules.

Barring an automatic bid for winning the Big 12 postseason tournament, this year’s Jayhawks won’t play in the postseason for the first time since 1991.

This season’s Jayhawks also set the ignominious school records for worst home loss and most home losses (eight).

“It has been a bad year,” Johnson said, “but I had three fantastic years. So that’s 3-1. I’ll take that record any day.”

The four departing players were honored in a pregame ceremony along with their parents, and each took a turn at the microphone afterward to address the crowd of 5,500 fans.

White, who had 11 points to cap an injury-plagued home career, gave a particularly tearful farewell, and KU coach Marian Washington took several minutes after the game to compose herself for her address to the media.

“It was a difficult loss,” Washington said. “We just got down so far in the first half, we weren’t able to come back. We went in the locker room and I didn’t say anything about the game. I talked about the seniors and trying to celebrate what they’ve meant to this program.”

Four Tiger starters reached double figures. Amanda Lassiter led the way with 15 points and was followed by Evan Unrau (14), Marlena Williams (13) and Kerensa Barr (12).

Missouri hit 42.2 percent of its field goals and had 16 turnovers to Kansas’ 24. Every KU player had at least one turnover.

“We’ll do our best to get ready for Texas A&M next week and then get ready for the third season,” Washington said of the Big 12 tournament. “Hopefully we can go into Kansas City with nothing to lose.”

KU will conclude its regular season on Wednesday at A&M. Tipoff is 7 p.m.

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