By Jeff Fedotin     Jan 14, 2007

If someone had told Kansas University women’s basketball coach Bonnie Henrickson that Nebraska guard Kiera Hardy would score only 11 points on 4-for-11 shooting, Henrickson would have liked her chances Saturday night.

“Sure,” Henrickson said, “She’s had fantastic games against us.”

Although KU contained Hardy, poor offensive play hindered the Jayhawks, who lost, 63-54, to Nebraska in Allen Fieldhouse. The defeat, Kansas’ seventh straight, dropped the team to 5-11 overall and 0-4 in the Big 12 Conference.

Hardy, a two-time first-team All-Big 12 player, burned the Jayhawks with 26 and 19 points in the teams’ last two meetings. To combat Hardy, Henrickson gave 5-foot-8 senior Sharita Smith her first start of the year.

“Sharita played awesome,” forward Danielle McCray said. “She’s our best defender by far.”

Smith faceguarded Hardy for much of the game and limited her to two points and 1-of-7 shooting in the first half.

“They just played good D,” Hardy said.

KU’s offense was a different story. Kansas, which entered the game shooting 39.2 percent, started out 0-for-8 from the field en route to 34.8 percent shooting.

“We put so much pressure on our defense right now to get stops,” KU’s Kelly Kohn said, “because we’re not converting on the offensive end.”

Henrickson said the team typically shoots 42 to 47 percent from the field during practice and takes plenty of repetitions.

“We shoot more than any team in America. I promise you,” she said. “We just don’t shoot it well when we smell the popcorn.”

The young team seemed to execute fairly solid shot selection, but mental blocks may contribute to the Jayhawks’ inaccuracy.

“We missed some good shots,” Henrickson said. “We’re probably a little bit too concerned about the defense rotation than we are about just focusing on the rim.”

Nebraska (14-3 overall, 2-1 Big 12) jumped to a 7-0 lead and never trailed. KU, however, made it close on several occasions. With just more than 10 minutes in the second half, Kohn hit a three to cut the lead to 34-30. Smith followed with a layup to slice the deficit to one.

Nebraska freshman Yvonne Turner then responded with a three-point play for her only points of the game.

“Same old story – we’re right in the game,” said Kohn, who had 20 points, seven rebounds and five assists. “We don’t take advantage of those game-changing, momentum-changing plays, and we let the game slip from underneath us.”

Nebraska did not play a great game either, committing 21 turnovers and scoring only 25 first-half points.

“It wasn’t the best,” Hardy said. “A win on the road is a great win.”

The Cornhuskers, though, did a receive a strong all-around performance from Kelsey Griffin, who entered the gamed averaging 16.1 points and 8.4 rebounds. With Hardy mostly ineffective, Griffin, a 6-2 senior, picked up the slack to the tune of 18 points and 13 rebounds (eight of them in the second half).

“Kelsey played some terrific basketball,” Nebraska coach Connie Yori said. “When we couldn’t get a rebound throughout first half, Kelsey just decided she’d get all of them in the second.”

Opposing Griffin, KU’s Marija Zinic started in the post for the first time in five games. Henrickson did not use the 6-2 Zinic to match up against Griffin so much as to replace freshman Porscha Weddington, who has underperformed of late.

“I hadn’t been very happy with Porscha,” Henrickson said.

Zinic did not score in six minutes and appeared to struggle with a recent stress fracture to her fibula.

“It’s probably between her ears as much as anything,” Henrickson said. “She was tentative and a little soft.”

Kansas will play host Wednesday to Sacramento State.

“There’s not a more miserable feeling than we have right now,” Henrickson said. “I promise you the kids would rather play than us practice for another week and chew on this.”