Jayhawks Fall 59-49 At #22 Iowa State
March 7, 2009
AMES, Iowa –
Iowa State jumped out to an early 8-0 lead and never looked back as the Cyclones defeated Kansas 59-40 on Saturday evening at Hilton Coliseum. Kansas junior Danielle McCray recorded her seventh double-double of the season with 27 points and 11 boards, but it was not enough as ISU snapped KU’s four-game winning streak on “Senior Night” in Ames.
The loss dropped Kansas to 17-12 overall and 6-10 in Big 12 Conference play with the regular season in the books. Iowa State improved to 23-7 overall with the win and finished regular-season play with a 11-5 mark in conference action.
ISU senior Amanda Nisleit connected on two-three point baskets and fellow senior Jocelyn Anderson dropped in a bucket to give the Cyclones an 8-0 lead in the opening minutes of play. Kansas sophomore Krysten Boogaard got a basket inside to get the Jayhawks on the board with 17:13 to play in the opening frame, but that was as close as KU would get the rest of the way. Both teams went scoreless for three minutes before ISU senior Heather Ezell got the Cyclones back up and running with a steal and a lay-up.
ISU led by as many as 15 points in the first half on a Nicky Wieben jumper with just under five minutes to play. Wieben scored 13 of ISU’s final 15 first-half points as the Cyclones took a 32-20 lead into the lockerroom. McCray led KU with eight first half points.
The Jayhawks did their best to battle back into the game, trimming the ISU lead down to seven points on a Boogaard put-back with 9:30 left in the game. KU could not cut any further into the ISU lead as Ezell and Wieben scored back-to-back baskets after an ISU timeout to push the lead back to 11 points. Despite 19 second-half points from McCray, the Jayhawks were not able to get the lead under double-figures the rest of the way as ISU took the 59-49 win.
McCray made 9-of-19 shots from the field, including 4-of-8 from beyond the arc, on her way to tallying her 27 points. She also had three blocks and two assists. Boogaard finished with eight points and eight boards, while junior Sade Morris had eight points and four assists.
Wieben led ISU with 20 points and nine boards and Ezell added 14 points.
KU earned the eight seed in next week’s 2009 Big 12 Championship. The Jayhawks will face No. 9 seed Nebraska (15-14, 6-10) on Thursday, March 12 at 11 a.m., at the Cox Convention Center. Kansas and Nebraska split during regular-season play with each team winning at home.
