Gophers push past Jayhawks

By J-W Staff And Wire Reports     Dec 6, 2004

Ann Heisenfelt/AP Photo
Kansas University guard Erica Hallman, right, and Minnesota center Janel McCarville chase down a loose ball during the first half. Hallman scored 11 points, but McCarville led the 18th-ranked Gophers with 15 points in a 62-45 victory Sunday in Minneapolis.

? Depth and defense saved Minnesota after a miserable first half Sunday.

The No. 18 Gophers held Kansas University, playing its first road game this season, to 12 points in the second half, and Liz Podominick came off the bench to score 14 points to trigger a 62-45 victory.

“Honestly, I couldn’t be more proud,” Kansas coach Bonnie Henrickson said. “I said, ‘Just pat yourself 110,000 times on the back for coming out and being ready to play.’ When we huddled up at shoot-around today I said, ‘Your focus and intensity today has to be that we can win this game, because if you don’t think that we have a chance to win, we could get humiliated here,’ because we understand and respect how good they are.

“And I couldn’t be more proud of the way they came out.”

Trailing by 10, Kansas (3-3) tried to fight back, but Minnesota (6-1) kept pounding it inside. Four times the Jayhawks cut the lead to eight, but each time Janel McCarville or Podominick — both 6-foot-2 — countered by scoring inside to bump the lead back to 10.

Ann Heisenfelt/AP Photos
Minnesota's Shannon Schonrock celebrates after making a three-pointer in a 62-45 victory over Kansas on Sunday in Minneapolis.

“I think our lack of depth hurt us in the post,” said Henrickson, who used just seven players overall and had four log at least 37 minutes. “They kept rotating in fresh linebackers, so to speak. Those are some big and awfully skilled players. We just never had an answer for their run in the second half.”

The Jayhawks had 21 rebounds and just three on the offensive end, while the Gophers grabbed 38 boards, including 11 on offense. Minnesota also had six blocks, compared to one for KU.

Crystal Kemp led Kansas with 17 points. Erica Hallman added 11, but was held scoreless in the second half.

Kansas dominated play throughout much of the first half, racing to its 19-4 lead on the strength of a 13-0 run. Aquanita Burras, Kaylee Brown and Hallman nailed three-pointers on their first three shots.

“We looked like we weren’t ready to play at the beginning,” Shannon Schonrock said. “Our defensive energy was not there. They were hot early too, and maybe that took a little air out of us.”

Schonrock’s three-pointer capped a 9-0 run that brought Minnesota to within two, 24-22.

The Jayhawks then scored the next seven points, including a three-point play by Brown, and took a six-point lead into halftime.

“I thought we showed a lot of character to come back, make the adjustments and do what we had to do defensively,” Borton said.

The Gophers trailed by 15 points early in the game and by six at the half, but their halfcourt defense ignited a 17-0 run that gave them a 47-37 lead. At one point in the second half, Kansas had nearly as many turnovers (seven) as field goal attempts (nine) as Minnesota trapped the Jayhawks’ ballhandlers and came up with 10 steals.

“We want the identity of this program to be our defense, and we weren’t getting it done,” said Minnesota coach Pam Borton, who watched Kansas hit eight of its first 12 shots en route to a 19-4 lead. “We knew we had to stop the bleeding and get refocused defensively.”

The Gophers’ offense wasn’t helping matters, either, as they missed seven of their first eight field-goal attempts and committed 10 first-half turnovers. All-America center McCarville was just 2-for-8 from the floor and had four turnovers in the first half, but she hit 5-of-7 shots in the second half and led the Gophers with 15 points, nine rebounds, six assists, four steals and three blocked shots.

“We’ve come out and taken early leads a lot and have been in the position Kansas was in,” McCarville said. “We knew we had to rally ourselves and just try to get back on the same page.”

The tide turned in the Gophers’ favor early in the second half as they rallied from a 37-30 deficit. Podominick tied the game with two free throws, then gave Minnesota its first lead with a basket in the low post.

McCarville and Schonrock scored fast-break layups, and Jamie Broback capped the run with another basket in the post, where the Gophers used their size and depth to dominate in the second half.

“When the ball went inside, especially to (McCarville), they double- and triple-teamed her, but they kept guarding me with one person, so I was able to take advantage,” Podominick said.

Kansas will take on Western Illinois at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Allen Fieldhouse.

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