Even after the Kansas University women’s basketball team’s 70-60 loss to No. 6 Baylor on Wednesday night, coach Bonnie Henrickson had plenty of reasons to feel like, ultimately, she won.

One was that her defensive game plan flustered the Bears. A gutsy performance on Senior Night also gave Henrickson reason to smile.

“The biggest surprise of the night was their zone defense,” Baylor coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson said. “I don’t know that I’ve seen any film where they’ve played any zone this year. When I think of Kansas and Bonnie, I don’t think of a zone defensive team.”

The Jayhawks’ defensive strategy was a large part of what kept them in the game the whole night.

Kansas opened in a 2-3 zone in an attempt to double-up on Baylor’s deadly forward duo of Sophia Young and Steffanie Blackmon.

“A couple of times I heard bickering back and forth,” Kansas freshman forward Jamie Boyd said of Baylor’s confusion. “At halftime, they only had four offensive boards, so we were pretty happy about that. We definitely stressed boxing out.”

Early, Kansas (12-13 overall, 5-9 Big 12 Conference) was not showing the same aggression on the offensive end. Baylor (22-3, 12-3) jumped out to a 21-5 lead by the 10:37 mark, having gone 8-of-14 from the floor.

Then senior guard Aquanita Burras, in her last game in Allen Fieldhouse, flipped the switch, scoring 15 points before the half, pulling Kansas within 10 at 32-22.

In the Jayhawks’ 9-1 run going into halftime, the Bears turned the ball over on four of their seven possessions, with Burras capitalizing on hard drives to the hole and a three-pointer from the corner.

“It was Baylor versus Aqua there in the first half, so thank God she made some shots,” Henrickson said. “They struggled to guard her off the dribble.”

Kansas University's Aquanita Burras (11) drives the lane against Baylor's Emily Niemann in the Jayhawks' 70-60 loss. Burras was one of two seniors honored on Senior Night on Wednesday at Allen Fieldhouse.

Baylor had only a 12-11 rebounding advantage in the first half. That was one of Henrickson’s major concerns going in.

Even when Baylor opened the second half on a 12-4 run to push its lead to 18 points, Kansas countered.

Burras again caught fire, but this time got help from junior guard Erica Hallman, fresh off of her career-high 22 points in Sunday’s victory over Nebraska.

Also like Sunday, Hallman began doing damage behind the three-point arc, and Kansas was able to cut the deficit as low as six points at 52-46 with 10 minutes remaining.

Burras tied a career-high, tallying 24 points, while Hallman scored 21, making her the first Jayhawk since Jaclyn Johnson in 2000-01 to score 20 points in consecutive games.

Also on the Jayhawks’ side was another new defensive look. This time, they used a box-and-one in an attempt to cancel out Baylor’s Emily Niemann, who entered the game as a 50-percent three-point shooter.

Niemann, who scored eight points and hit two threes in the first half, went 0-for-2 from the floor in the second.

Former Kansas University All-American Lynette Woodard is honored at halftime of KU's 70-60 loss to Baylor. Woodard joined the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in September and was recognized for that accomplishment Wednesday at Allen Fieldhouse.

But while Niemann was being silenced, the Bears earned plenty of open looks from the 15- to 17-foot range, and they knocked them down — particularly guard Chameka Scott, who scored 11 of her 14 points in the second half.

“Give them credit, because when we gave them uncontested shots, they made shots,” Henrickson said. “All in all, even though we don’t come out of it on the right end, I’m proud of our kids to find a way to compete and make it a game.”

Kansas’ final two regular-season games won’t be much easier. Next up is No. 17 Kansas State on Saturday at Bramlage Coliseum. The Jayhawks lost to the Wildcats 63-45 on Jan. 8.

“That gives us confidence,” Burras said. “Because we know we can play any team in the nation at this point.”