McCray, Morris Lead Women's Basketball to WNIT Win Over Arkansas, 75-59
March 26, 2009
LAWRENCE, Kan. –
Juniors Danielle McCray and Sade Morris each scored more than 20 points for the third time in the last four games as the Jayhawk women’s basketball team defeated Arkansas, 75-59, in Allen Fieldhouse Thursday night.
McCray’s 35 points tied a career high while Morris’ 23 was one point short of tying her career best.
The win advanced the Jayhawks to the Elite Eight of the Women’s NIT and improved their record to 20-13. Arkansas, led by Ayana Brereton’s 15 points, finished with an 18-15 record for the season.
Arkansas opened the second half on a 6-2 run and cut the lead to single digits multiple times early in the period, but Kansas found an answer every time. A three-point play by McCray capped a 12-2 KU run – including seven straight McCray points – to put the Jayhawks up 63-42 midway through the half. Kansas never looked back, keeping the lead comfortably around 20 points for the remainder of the game.
Both teams got off to a slow start as the score was tied at 5-5 more than five minutes into the game. The Jayhawks quickly went on a 14-0 run, however, to make the score 19-5. During that stretch, Morris poured in seven of her 14 first-half points.
McCray added 12 points, Aishah Sutherland led KU with eight rebounds and Ivana Catic dished out seven assists in the first period. Kansas led by as many as 17 points before taking a 36-23 advantage into the locker room at the break.
The Jayhawks outrebounded the Razorbacks by a margin of 43-33 and shot 52 percent from the field compared to UA’s 33 percent. Sutherland finished the game with 11 rebounds and eight points while McCray tied another career high with three blocks.
Kansas moves on to face the winner of tomorrow night’s game between Oregon State and New Mexico. Date and location are to be determined. Please check back with kuathletics.com for all the latest updates.
