KU guard/forward Danielle McCray sprints past a Sacred Heart player for possession of the basketball. McCray tied her career-high with 29 points in the Jayhawks' 106-64 rout of Sacred Heart on Friday in the season opener at Allen Fieldhouse. McCray was 12-of-16 from the field and 5-of-7 from three-point range in the victory.

Slow down, Danielle McCray, you’re moving too fast.

McCray eased up on the pedal and matched her career-high with 29 points as Kansas drubbed Sacred Heart, 106-64, in women’s basketball on Friday night in Allen Fieldhouse.

“She’d been exceeding her speed limit,” KU coach Bonnie Henrickson said about the 5-foot-11 junior guard/forward. “Not on defense, but on offense, and I said, ‘Let the game come to you.'”

McCray, heeding that advice, made her first six shots and finished 12-of-16 from the field, including a torrid 5-of-7 from three-point range.

“She was the focal point of the last four days in practice,” Sacred Heart coach Ed Swanson said. “But obviously you wouldn’t know that by today. I think she outscored us in the first half by herself.”

Not quite. McCray had 22 points in the first 20 minutes, and Sacred Heart had 25.

Actually, McCray matched SHU because the Pioneers were awarded a phantom three-point goal at the halftime buzzer. Two officials waved it off, but the lead official ruled it was good, and the trey counted.

A little more than seven minutes into the second half, McCray drilled her fifth trey to boost her point total to 29, matching her career high set last December against Marquette.

McCray played sparingly in the last 13 minutes and did not score again.

Was she disappointed she didn’t surpass her career high?

“I didn’t even know what my career high was,” she said.

McCray was more interested in the fact the Jayhawks, a team that had difficulty scoring last season, rang up more points than any Kansas team had ever manufactured under Henrickson, and became the first KU team to break the century mark in eight years.

“That means a lot,” McCray said. “We’re making extra passes, we’re believing in each other.”

Six Jayhawks scored in double figures, including junior Porscha Weddington who produced a career-high 10 points.

“I have a lot more confidence this year,” said Weddington, whose high-water mark during the last two seasons was eight points. “I’m more comfortable.”

Meanwhile, the Jayhawks barracuda-like defense made the court a very uncomfortable place for the Pioneers, a team that won 19 games last year and has five starters returning.

“They never got into a rhythm and flow,” Henrickson said. “And that’s what you want. You don’t want a team to come in and be comfortable.”

Kansas scored 53 points in each half, but the first half was the killer. The Jayhawks forced 19 of SHU’s 25 turnovers and outscored the Pioneers 26-0 during a fateful 9 1/2-minute stretch.

“I think one mistake just compounded the other ones,” SHU coach Swanson said. “McCray starts the game 4-for-5 from the three-point line, and it just knocked the wind out of us.”

Perhaps the only downer for the Jayhawks occurred with about 16 minutes remaining when Nicolette Smith took an elbow to the nose, and the game had to be stopped for several minutes while the floor was cleansed of blood.

Smith did not return. Henrickson said the 6-2 sophomore had too much swelling to determine if her nose is broken.

Regardless, Smith is probably questionable for the Jayhawks’ next game Tuesday against Iowa. Tipoff for that game is 11 a.m. It’s the only women’s game on ESPN’s basketball marathon that day.