Roller-coaster season continues for KU women

Jayhawks to entertain Sooners tonight at home

Home games have been few and far between for Kansas University’s women’s basketball team lately.

Tonight’s game against Oklahoma, for example, is sandwiched among four road trips.

Whether playing at home or on the road, though, KU coach Bonnie Henrickson is looking for consistency.

“We’ve talked all year about staying off the roller coaster,” Henrickson said, “and, for us, they’re all big right now.”

Tipoff will be at 7:05 p.m. in Allen Fieldhouse. The game will be televised live on Sunflower Broadband Channel 6.

Kansas began its road-heavy gantlet more than a week ago by stunning Colorado, 65-60, in Boulder, Colo. But then the Jayhawks slid back down the coaster with a 59-48 loss to Nebraska on Saturday in Lincoln, Neb.

“We weren’t very good at Nebraska,” Henrickson said. “We have to realize why we came out so flat.”

KU’s Big Three of Crystal Kemp, Erica Hallman and Aquanita Burras combined for only 26 points against the Cornhuskers, and Henrickson received only two points from her thin bench.

Kemp, Hallman and Burras have been ironwomen. The KU threesome is in the top six in the Big 12 Conference for minutes played. They account for nearly 64 percent of the Jayhawks’ scoring.

“We don’t have much wiggle room,” Henrickson said. “If one doesn’t play well, we have a hard time winning. It’s not an excuse. It’s reality. We don’t have anyone off the bench to help somebody who is struggling.”

Kansas, 9-9 overall and 2-5 in the league, will be facing another team coming off a disappointing defeat. Iowa State smacked the cold-shooting Sooners, 73-60, Saturday in Norman, Okla. Oklahoma shot only 29 percent, including a dreadful 6-of-33 from three-point range.

“I think it’s a critical point of the season,” OU coach Sherri Coale said afterward. “The season is a long way from over, I promise you that. If you think that we are just going to lay over and start talking about next year, you’re nuts.”

Oklahoma dipped to 3-3 in the league and 11-7 overall.

OU boasts one of the league’s best all-around players in Dionnah Jackson, a 5-foot-9 senior from St. Louis, Mo., who ranks in the league’s top five in the unusual combination of assists and rebounds.

“Jackson is as good as any point guard in the country,” Henrickson said. “She can pass, but she can also post up. She plays a lot of minutes and she plays hard.”

Jackson is averaging 14 points and 8.6 rebounds a game. Leah Rush, a 6-foot-1 soph, also averages 14 points a game, and Erin Higgins, a 5-9 soph., is OU’s best three-point shooter. She made 4-of-10 threes against ISU while her teammates were going 2-for-23 from beyond the arc.

After tonight, the Jayhawks won’t play in Allen Fieldhouse again until Feb. 13 against Colorado. KU will travel to Missouri Saturday, then go to Oklahoma State a week from tonight.

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Notes: OU reserve forward Krista Sanchez is a niece of KU softball coach Tracy Bunge. … Each fan will receive a Rock Chalk wristband as long as supplies last. … OU has won the last six meetings.