Story by Darren Hellwege
Photos by Kaveh Kaghazi

Kansas scored the last nine points of the first half, then led off the second with a 10-1 streak on their way to a 72-63 victory over Missouri in women’s basketball Sunday. The Tigers gave arch-rival a tough fight early in what might be the Jayhawks’ last visit to Mizzou Arena for quite some time.

Jayhawks forward Aishah Sutherland (11) boxes out Morgan Eye (30). Sutherland had 24 points and a game-high nine rebounds.

The Tigers fall to 10-5 overall and are winless in four Big 12 games. KU is 14-2, 3-1 in conference.

The biggest problem for the Tigers was ball control. 
“We’ve got to get better at this to have a chance,” coach Robin Pingeton said of her team’s 18 turnovers. “There’s a lot of things that need to go right, but we have to take care of the ball.”

Missouri’s BreAnna Brock  had a career high 26 points but the Tigers were unable to stop Jayhawk forwards Aishah Sutherland and Carolyn Davis, each of whom scored 24 points.

The Jayhawks obviously made a goal of stopping the Tigers leading scorer. They were successful, as Christine Flores got only seven shots and finished with a mere six points, the only time this season a team has held Flores under 10 points.

“She’s so good on ball screens, we just hugged her,” KU coach Bonnie Henrickson said of Flores. “Obviously, we have great respect for her.”

The turnovers showed Mizzou had problems with ball control, but credit also has to go to the Jayhawks’ strong defense.

“Bonnie told us we needed to get offense out of our defense,” Kansas guard Monica Engleman said. And they did just that, scoring 17 points off turnovers.

In addition to having Flores shut down, the Tigers also struggled from distance, making just five of 13 3-pointers, two of them from Brock. Morgan Eye, who at one point in the season was among the top shooters in the nation, made just one of five. Tiger guard Liene Priede also continues to be in a shooting slump and for the first time this season did not start. Priede finished with only two points.

But other changes are getting positive results, as Sydney Crafton continues to be more and more a part of what Mizzou does on offense. Like the men’s team, the “inside out” game works best with penetration and Crafton is the best driver on the team, whether she attacks the rim and scores, dishes to one of the bigs, or kicks it back out.

“If I’m not producing, they can double up Christine or BreAnna, what I’m doing is important. Coach talks about me as one of the ‘big three’,” Crafton said.

Neither team seemed to want to talk much about the end of the rivalry. Pingeton indicated that where her program is now, any home loss is a bad feeling, while Henrickson said, “We’ve struggled here, but we didn’t really make this about (the rivalry.) This is about how much pride we have, and building a resume with wins on the road.”

NOTES

• The benching of Liene Priede saw the return to the starting lineup of Bailey Gee. Gee started the first eight games this season before Pingeton moved Crafton back into the starting five. Gee played 15 minutes and scored two points, but defense and leadership have been her contribution.

• Sutherland’s 24 points were a career high.

WHAT’S NEXT?

•  The Tigers travel to take on defending national champion Texas A&M in College Station. The Aggies are 11-4 overall and 2-2 in Big 12 after a 76-71 upset by Texas and an overtime loss at Kansas State.

• The Tigers return home on Saturday, Jan. 21, to play Oklahoma State. The Cowgirls are 10-3 overall and 2-2 in the league, playing through the tragedy of losing head coach Kurt Budke and assistant Miranda Serna in a plane crash earlier this season.