Eight points and eight assists are hardly headline fodder, yet they mean a lot to Kansas University’s women’s basketball team.

They’re the numbers junior point guard Ivana Catic compiled in the Jayhawks’ 81-55 sacking of Saint Louis on Sunday afternoon in Allen Fieldhouse.

“Her leadership brings us together,” sophomore Danielle McCray said of Catic. “The thing I like about her is she takes information and learns from it.”

Catic, a 5-foot-8 native of Serbia, had a rough sophomore season, starting only seven games and sitting out eight games entirely. In other words, she was benched.

“Last year was tough, but I never gave up,” Catic said. “I knew as a junior I would be expected to step up.”

Catic has started all six games, and her court management has played a notable role in the Jayhawks winning five of them. On Sunday, she spent a team-high 32 minutes on the floor.

KU coach Bonnie Henrickson pointed to Catic’s poise, noting: “She understands who’s on the floor and who’s hot.”

Lately, all the Jayhawks have been hot. Five days ago, they shot 57 percent in a 91-56 crushing of Creighton. On Sunday, they shot 52 percent against the Billikens.

“We share the ball, and we’re very unselfish,” Henrickson said. “That’s starting to show more and more with every game we play.”

Kansas was the worst shooting team in the Big 12 Conference last season at 39 percent, but the Jayhawks are converting at around 48 percent in their first half-dozen games, and Catic’s resurgence has certainly coincided with the early surge.

“The past is past,” said Sade Morris, whose 16 points tied for team scoring honors with McCray. “(Ivana) learned from last year. She said, ‘I’m not going to let what happened last year happen again.'”

Catic has been particularly impressive in protecting the ball. She has more steals (14) than turnovers (8), impressive numbers for a player who handles the ball as much as she does. Last year, she had five more turnovers than thefts.

“I do feel comfortable,” Catic said. “But I know we have some things we really need to work on because it won’t get any easier when the Big 12 starts.”

For instance, Kansas didn’t shoot free throws very well Sunday (11 of 23), and the Jayhawks surrendered 17 offensive rebounds – a season-long bugaboo. Still, their deadly shooting and SLU’s brutal field-goal accuracy – an ugly 27 percent – masked the deficiencies.

Except for about a 10-minute sinking spell in the second half, Sunday’s victory was strikingly similar to the romp over Creighton.

“We hit the gas pedal in the first half,” Henrickson said, “but we didn’t stay on it like we did last time. We probably played 30 minutes, or 28 minutes.”

Saint Louis, without injured guard Theresa Lisch – their leading scorer last year – dipped to 2-6. Katie Paganelli scored a game-high 17 points, but missed 15 of 19 shots. Teammates Jackie Gilbert and Amy Klotz were 2-for-11 and 0-for-8 from the field, respectively.

“We made them play faster than they wanted to,” Henrickson said, “and got them out of their rhythm.”

Kansas will try to keep its winning rhythm going Thursday night when it plays host to Marquette.