A slow start against Oklahoma State wasn’t fatal. A sluggish start against Kansas State, however, could be disastrous.
Kansas University’s women’s basketball team fell into an early eight-point hole against OSU on Sunday, then rallied for a 66-46 victory in Allen Fieldhouse. But Kansas State is not O-State, particularly in Manhattan.
“We’ve got to get off to a decent start,” KU coach Bonnie Henrickson said about tonight’s intra-state clash.
Tipoff will be at 7:05 p.m. in Bramlage Coliseum. The game will be telecast live on Fox Sports Midwest (Sunflower Broadband channel 36).
In last year’s visit to Manhattan, the Jayhawks started slowly and finished even slower, bowing, 73-46. It was K-State’s eighth straight victory over KU and typical of the Wildcats’ recent domination in the Sunflower State series.
KSU has won those eight games by an average margin of 25.5 points.
KU senior Crystal Kemp has been on the wrong side of the last six defeats, but the Jayhawks’ leading scorer (19.9 ppg.) stresses she can’t dwell on it.
“I don’t think we’re worried about how many we’ve lost over there,” Kemp said. “We’re just going in there to win.”
The Jayhawks’ last victory in Bramlage Coliseum was a 65-62 squeaker in 2001 – Kemp was a junior at Topeka High then – but the Wildcats’ crowds have grown larger since then, making Bramlage one of the Big 12’s toughest places to play.
“They have a nice crowd every time,” Kemp said, “but anytime you go anywhere in the Big 12, it’s hard to win.”
KU’s strengths have been three-point shooting and court management. The Jayhawks lead the Big 12 in three-point accuracy at 39 percent and they’re the top dog in assists and assists-to-turnover ratio.
On the flip side, Kansas ranks 225th nationally in field goal defense (41.5 percent) and 300th in blocked shots (1.6 per game), so the key tonight is no mystery.
“We have to be as good defensively as we’ve been all year,” Henrickson said, “or even better than we’ve been all year.”
This is only the third road game for the Jayhawks. They bowed to Nebraska and Colorado in the other two.
“We just have to go out there and play hard,” Kemp said. “We had two tough ones at Nebraska and Colorado and we’ve put those behind us. We’ll just go out there and play the game we know how to play.”
Notes: KU soph Jamie Boyd, who missed Sunday’s game because of a medical condition, is doubtful for tonight, Henrickson said. : The Jayhawks will go from the frying pan into the fire Saturday when they travel to Waco, Texas, to meet defending NCAA champion Baylor.
