Jayhawk Women Wrap Up Second 20-Win Season In Last Three Years
March 28, 2011
Season In Review
LAWRENCE, Kan. –
The Kansas women’s basketball program has a lot to look forward to heading into the 2011-12 season. Not only is the team coming off its second 20-win campaign in the last three years, but they are also looking back on a season in which they got off to its best start, (13-1) since 1993-94. The Jayhawks also posted their fourth-straight undefeated regular season against non-conference opponents in Allen Fieldhouse and qualified for postseason play for the fourth-consecutive year.
Kansas garnered its best road record under Henrickson, compiling a 5-7 ledger away from Lawrence. KU got wins over Wisconsin, SMU and Creighton in non-conference action and defeated Colorado and Oklahoma State in Big 12 play. The Jayhawks also knocked off No. 20 Iowa State in overtime in Allen Fieldhouse, one of their 15 wins in the historic building.
The team, which finished with a 21-13 overall record, was lead by sophomore Carolyn Davis who will head into her junior year with many accolades. The 6-foot-3 forward was named First Team All-Big 12 and is only the third Kansas player in the last six years to garner such honors. Davis wrapped up the 2010-11 campaign averaging 19.0 points, 7.4 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game. The stand-out sophomore also managed to compile a total of nine double-doubles during the season, giving her 15 for her career. Davis had five games in which she scored 30 or more points, including her final game of the season in which she netted a career high 38 against Duquesne in the second round of the WNIT.
After two seasons, the Houston native has a total of 922 points, which easily puts her on pace to become the program’s 23rd 1,000 point scorer. Davis has shown the potential to climb the KU scoring chart and could land well inside the top 10 all-time Jayhawk scorers.
While Davis had a stellar season in the paint, her teammates beyond the arc and at the top of the key also had years to hang their hats on. Sophomore guard Monica Engelman shot a team best .395 three point field goal percentage and was the only other Jayhawk to average double-digits with her 12.1 points per contest. Engelman also averaged 4.0 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game in 32.8 minutes of play.
With a full and for the most part healthy season under her belt, sophomore guard Angel Goodrich continued her unselfish play by dishing out a team high 170 assists (6.3 per game), while averaging 7.5 points and 3.0 rebounds. She, along with starters Engelman and Davis, will join junior Aishah Sutherland as upperclassmen next season. Sutherland wrapped up her third season in the Crimson and Blue averaging 8.4 points and 7.2 rebounds per game in 25.7 minutes.
Leading the underclassmen is freshman guard Keena Mays. Mays averaged 22.2 minutes of play in each of the Jayhawks’ 34 games during her first season and scored 7.1 points per contest. The 5-foot-7 freshman guard grabbed an average of 3.0 rebounds per game and dished out 3.5 assists, which ranked 10th in the Big 12 Conference.
Redshirt freshman Tania Jackson will head into her second season having played in all but one of her team’s games this past season. During those 33 games, of which she started 11, the Lawrence native averaged 4.4 points, while bringing down a little less than three rebounds per contest. Fellow freshman Diara Moore will also look toward her sophomore season with much confidence. Moore also played in all but one of KU’s 34 games this past season and in doing so averaged 3.8 points per game, while pulling down 2.2 rebounds.
As Henrickson and the Jayhawks look forward to the young team (with only one senior) they will have next season, they say so long to two important cogs in the KU machine over the last few years.
Senior Krysten Boogaard leaves the Kansas program as its 20th highest scorer. Her 1,051 career points places her in front of former KU greats Tracy Claxton, (1980-82) and Shebra Legrant, (1979-81). Boogaard also finishes her career playing in the second most games (132) in program history, only seven behind the legendary Lynette Woodard, (1977-81).
Kansas City native Marisha Brown made a definite splash in her two seasons in Lawrence. The Missouri State and Arkansas-Fort Smith transfer averaged 3.5 points per game in her final season at KU, while grabbing 2.4 rebounds and having started in 12 of the 24 games in which she played.
The 2010-11 season also marked two historic firsts for the Jayhawk women’s basketball program and coincidentally enough they came within the same game. Back on December 1 at Allen Fieldhouse, KU defeated Maine 126-63. The 63-point victory was historic for a number of reasons. First and foremost, the win was the 700th in the 42-year history of the Kansas program and the 126 points scored by the Jayhawks that night was a school record, eclipsing the old mark of 122 reached twice in 1979 and 2000.
While the historic Maine victory was arguably the team’s best win at home, their toughest road victory came back on February 23 in Stillwater, against the Cowgirls of Oklahoma State. Led by Goodrich, Engelman, Sutherland and Jackson, who all scored in double-digits, the Jayhawks came back and stole a victory from OSU on the road, 73-66. Goodrich scored a season high 14-points in front of many friends and family from her near-by home of Tahlequah. In the end, the game saw 11-lead changes and four ties as KU was able to get their fifth conference victory of the season and only second on the road.
KU’s 21 victories during the 2010-11 campaign also gave Henrickson her 100th career win as Jayhawk women’s head basketball coach. Her 117 wins after seven seasons puts her in second place behind longtime head coach Marian Washington, (1973-2004).
