KU mauls Mizzou

By Gary Bedore     Mar 5, 2001

Earl Richardson/Journal-World Photo
Kansas senior Kenny Gregory (20) puts up a shot between Missouri defenders Brian Grawer (12) and Travon Bryant (5). Kansas defeated Missouri, 75-59, on Sunday at Allen Fieldhouse.

Losing on Senior Day is never an option at Kansas.

“It means everything in the world for seniors to win their last game,” KU senior center Eric Chenowith said after scoring 11 points, grabbing six rebounds and blocking two shots in the Jayhawks’ 75-59 victory over Missouri on Sunday at Allen Fieldhouse.

“I’ve tried my best to help some of my (past) teammates go out with a win before. Now to be a senior, to beat Missouri, and play well in my last home game … it’s everything I thought it would be,” Chenowith added.

Seniors Chenowith, Kenny Gregory (16 points, nine boards) and the injured Luke Axtell (three minutes, no points) each started and helped extend KU’s Senior Day win streak to a whopping 18 games.

They also gave lengthy speeches after the game to the delight of 16,300 fans who stayed an hour after the game to eat up every word.

Earl Richardson/Journal-World Photo
Senior Eric Chenowith hugs coach Roy Williams after leaving the game in the final minutes Sunday.

“I’m not saying it’s impossible to lose on Senior Day. We’ve had some close calls before. But it would be unusual. I’m just glad it didn’t happen during my four years here,” said Gregory, who sobbed during his postgame speech when discussing a personal friend who died a few weeks ago.

The Jayhawks (23-5, 12-4) didn’t lose Sunday, though the outcome was in doubt against MU (18-11, 9-7) for more than 30 minutes.

Sophomore Drew Gooden (19 points, seven boards) scored eight points and Chenowith six in a 21-7 run that upped a 50-46 lead to 71-53 with four minutes left.

“Coach got on our big guys at halftime,” Gregory said. “They were too far out. They went down low and our perimeter guys got them the ball the second half.”

Indeed, KU outscored MU, 28 points to four in the paint the final half.

Gooden scored 14 points, Chenowith nine and Nick Collison (13 points, 13 boards) seven the second half. The Jayhawks hit 53.6 percent of their second half shots to Missouri’s 24 percent.

“We did a much better job getting the ball inside,” said KU coach Roy Williams. “There were two keys doing a better job of getting it inside the second half and defensively we did a better job getting to their three-point shooters.”

Clarence Gilbert hit two late threes in the first half to spark MU to a 31-30 halftime advantage. He finished with 19 points on 5-of-11 three-point shooting. Kareem Rush, who burned KU for a career-best 27 points in MU’s 75-66 victory over KU in Columbia, scored two points on 1-of-7 shooting.

Of course, this time he was wearing a heavy splint on his left shooting hand to protect his injured left thumb.

“Kareem is a phenomenal player. It’s a shame he got hurt. I’d assume that hand had something to do with it,” Williams said of Sunday’s effort compared to the 9-of-17 shooting effort versus KU in late January.

“He’s the same Rush, very hard to guard. Maybe he was not as aggressive today,” Gregory said. “They didn’t seem to be running as many plays for him as they usually do. I thought he showed a lot of heart playing today. Missouri really needs him. He knows that and he’s trying to play with that cast.”

Perhaps a healthy Rush would have made a difference Sunday. Perhaps not.

The Jayhawk seniors really gear up for Senior Day.

“To be honest, I was kind of tired,” Chenowith said. “It was a long morning. I normally take a nap after pre-game meal. Today I was pacing back and forth in my room. I was glad the fans were so fired up today. I kind of caught my breath and fed off them. They got my adrenaline going.

“It was like I was a freshman again, playing my first game in the fieldhouse. It was a great way to go out.”

Especially considering the foe was Missouri.

“I’d love to beat them 100-0, but that’s not going to happen,” Chenowith said. “It’s always good to beat Missouri. We hate them, but they hate us too.”

A 16-point victory was good enough.

Missouri 31 28 59
Kansas 30 45 75

Attendance: 16,300

“It was awesome. I’m so happy we won, especially by the margin we did,” said Axtell, who played just three minutes the first half, not being able to play the second because of severe back pain. “It was a great experience.”

For Gregory, too.

“I was looking it as another game, not, ‘I’ve got to win on Senior Day,”’ Gregory said. “I was telling the younger guys to relax and play their game and hopefully we’d come out with a win.”

The underclassmen responded.

“Losing? I can’t imagine what that feeling would be like (on Senior Day),” said sophomore guard Kirk Hinrich, who had five points and four assists. “Coach tells us to send the seniors out the right way. We’re all committed to doing that here.”

Kansas finished in a tie for second with Texas and Oklahoma in the Big 12 regular season standings. The Jayhawks earned the No. 2 seed in the league’s postseason tournament by virtue of beating UT and OU. So KU will play the winner of Thursday’s Kansas State-Nebraska game at 6:10 p.m. Friday at Kemper Arena.

MISSOURI (59) MIN FG FT REB PF TP
m-a m-a o-t
Ricky Paulding 23 7-9 1-2 1-4 1 16
Tajudeen Soyoye 31 1-3 2-2 3-7 2 4
Arthur Johnson 22 1-8 1-2 4-7 5 3
Clarence Gilbert 34 5-16 4-4 0-0 2 19
Brian Grawer 24 1-7 2-2 1-3 3 5
Travon Bryant 16 0-1 0-0 2-4 4 0
Wesley Stokes 23 1-3 5-6 0-0 4 8
Kareem Rush 15 1-7 0-0 0-3 1 2
Justin Gage 8 1-2 0-0 2-3 5 2
Johnnie Parker 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 2 0
Ryan Kiernan 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0
Michael Griffin 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0
Team 1-3
Totals 18-56 15-18 14-34 29 59

Three-point goals: 8-23 (Gilbert 5-11, Paulding 1-2, Stokes 1-1, Grawer 1-7, Gage 0-1, Rush 0-1). Assists: 8 (Grawer 3, Soyoye, Johnson, Gilbert, Stokes, Bryant). Turnovers: 21 (Soyoye 5, Johnson 3, Rush 3, Gilbert 2, Grawer 2, Bryant 2, Paulding, Gage). Blocked shots: 4 (Johnson 3, Paulding). Steals: 5 (Soyoye, Johnson, Gilbert, Bryant, Rush).

KANSAS (75) MIN FG FT REB PF TP
m-a m-a o-t
Nick Collison 31 5-8 3-7 2-13 2 13
Kenny Gregory 39 8-14 0-2 7-9 4 16
Eric Chenowith 23 3-8 5-6 2-6 2 11
Kirk Hinrich 30 1-4 2-4 2-3 4 5
Luke Axtell 3 0-1 0-0 0-1 0 0
Jeff Boschee 38 2-11 7-8 0-2 2 11
Drew Gooden 25 7-12 5-9 4-7 2 19
Brett Ballard 10 0-1 0-0 0-1 4 0
Jeff Carey 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0
Team 1-2
Totals 26-59 22-36 18-44 20 75

Three-point goals: 1-13 (Hinrich 1-3, Chenowith 0-1, Gregory 0-2, Boschee 0-6). Assists: 15 (Collison 4, Hinrich 4, Gregory 3, Boschee 3, Gooden). Turnovers: 14 (Collison 4, Hinrich 4, Gooden 2, Gregory, Boschee). Blocked shots: 4 (Collison 2, Chenowith 2). Steals: 5 (Boschee 2, Gregory, Chenowith, Gooden).

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