Kansas University’s women’s basketball team defeated Iowa State, 65-64, Saturday afternoon at a raucous Allen Fieldhouse when senior guard Erica Hallman connected on a free throw with five seconds left.
“I live for these kinds of things; I want the ball in my hand the last couple of seconds,” Hallman said. “Bonnie (Henrickson) had confidence in me and I had confidence in myself to make the shots if I got fouled.”
Senior forward Crystal Kemp led KU (14-6, 3-6 Big 12) with 19 points and 10 rebounds, her eighth double-double of the season.
“I feel really fortunate to win this game,” said Kemp, who moved into sole possession of 10th place on KU’s career list for rebounds. She now has 743 for her career with the Jayhawks.
“We were up by 13, and we let them get ahead of us. The fact that we continued to keep our poise and come back and win was definitely a plus for us.”
Senior guard Kaylee Brown chipped in 16 points and four 3-pointers, including a critical trey with less than three minutes to play in the second half. Freshman guard Ivana Catic finished with 15 points, one off a season high, and dished out seven assists.
In addition to her crucial free throw, Hallman scored eight points, grabbed five rebounds and distributed four assists.
The Jayhawks withstood a spirited Cyclones rally in the second half, as Iowa State cut the lead from 48-29 to 50-48 at the 12 minute media timeout. The Jayhawks held the Cyclones to 38 percent shooting from the field and limited Iowa State, the Big 12’s leading 3-point shooting team, to only 35 percent shooting from downtown.
“I’m real excited about how our kids bounced back today after a tough loss against Colorado,” Henrickson said. “We played with real pride today. We beat a great team that played very strong today.”
In the first half, Kemp and Catic paced KU with 11 and 10 points, respectively, to guide the Jayhawks to a 42-29 halftime lead. Kansas led by as many as 19 during the game and connected on seven three-pointers.
The Jayhawks return to action Wednesday, Feb. 8th, when they travel to Norman, Okla., to take on the Oklahoma Sooners at 7 p.m.
