Big 12 awaits Jayhawks

Unbeaten KU women to take on Texas in league opener

The competition has been ordinary at best, yet an 11-0 record carries an undeniable cachet.

Now the question is: Can Kansas University’s surging women’s basketball team carry the momentum of its fast start against so-so nonleague foes into Big 12 Conference play?

“We’re on our way,” freshman point guard Ivana Catic said, “and we’re not going to stop.”

Catic’s youthful enthusiasm is refreshing, but second-year coach Bonnie Henrickson understands the reality of the 16-game league grind that will begin tonight against Texas.

Tipoff will be at 6:05 p.m. in Allen Fieldhouse. The game will be televised live on CSTV (Sunflower Broadband channel 143).

“All of our seniors know how much better we have to be on Tuesday,” Henrickson said after Friday night’s 75-72 come-from-behind victory over La Salle.

By knocking off La Salle, this KU women’s basketball team became the first to begin the season with 11 victories and the first to run the table against its nonconference foes.

“We just feel really good right now,” said senior Crystal Kemp, who ranks among the league leaders in scoring at 19.1 points per game. “Now we have to get our game plan together, add to our positives and get rid of our negatives.”

Kansas opened conference play against the Longhorns last season, bowing 66-51 at the Erwin Center in Austin, Texas.

“We played them pretty close for awhile last year,” KU senior guard Erica Hallman said, “and then we ran out of gas.”

Tonight, Henrickson will start four of the same players who started against Texas last year – Kemp, Hallman, Kaylee Brown and Taylor McIntosh. The only new face is Catic, who has bumped Hallman from point guard to off guard to replace graduated Aquanita Burras.

Catic, who is more of a prototypical point guard than Hallman, has played a large role in the Jayhawks’ early success. The 5-foot-8 native of Serbia & Montenegro is averaging 11.7 points a game, but more impressive has been her assists-to-turnover ratio of nearly 3-to-1.

Tradition-rich Texas comes to town with a deceptive 6-4 record. The Longhorns, according to one ranking service, have the toughest schedule in the nation. Their losses have been to Tennessee (102-61), Duke (84-70), Rutgers (63-49) and New Mexico (76-68).

Tennessee and Duke are ranked 1-2 respectively in the national polls. Rutgers is a Top 10 team and New Mexico is in the Top 20.

Henrickson certainly isn’t fooled by the ‘Horns’ record.

“They’ve got speed, size and athleticism,” the KU coach said.

The high-flying Jayhawks lured more than 4,000 fans – a season high – to the LaSalle game.

“Hopefully, we can get more out there for the Texas game,” Henrickson said.