🏀 Jayhawks Remain Undefeated, Take Down Saint Louis 79-50
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Behind a career-high 19 points from Ioanna Chatzileonti, the Kansas Women’s Basketball team topped Saint Louis, 79-50, on Sunday afternoon at Allen Fieldhouse.
The win moves the Jayhawks to 4-0 on the season, while the Billikens fall to 1-3. This marks the 16th time in program history and fourth under head coach Brandon Schneider where the Jayhawks have been undefeated through the first four games of the season.
Chatzileonti led the Jayhawks with 19 points, which included 15 points in the second half. Three other Jayhawks scored in double-digits including Mia Vuksic with 12, Zakiyah Franklin with 11 and Taiyanna Jackson with her new career-high, 10.
"Depth is a strength of our team. We have had a lot of players out through the first month of practice, but a lot of development and chemistry continues to happen. We have had some good quarters, but we haven’t been pleased with any complete games. Now we have a very important trip to Vegas coming up."
Head Coach Brandon Schneider
The Jayhawks started the first quarter going up 4-0 over Saint Louis, however the Billikens kept it close. With the score 6-4 in favor of the Jayhawks, both teams had scoring droughts. The Jayhawks’ dry spell lasted almost three minutes, but was broken up by Zakiyah Franklin, who got a defensive rebound and took off on a fast break capped off by a layup.
The Kansas defense was difficult for the Billikens to break through, as the Jayhawks forced four turnovers and held Saint Louis to just eight points. After the first 10 minutes of play, the Jayhawks led 15-8.
Saint Louis went on an 8-0 run to start the second quarter to make the score 16-15 in their favor. The Jayhawks’ first points of the quarter came off of a couple of free throws made by Aniya Thomas, taking the lead back 17-16. Saint Louis responded, making the score 17-18 in their favor, but two back-to-back three pointers by Mia Vuksic gave the Jayhawks the lead that they would hold on to for the rest of the quarter. Kansas went into the locker room up 27-23.
Coming out of the break was when the Jayhawks really started to pull ahead. Kansas scored 28 points in the third quarter and shot 68.8 (11-of-16) from the field. Saint Louis had their highest-scoring quarter thus far with 16, but were still unable to keep up with the Jayhawks.
Kansas had an additional 24 points in the fourth quarter and held Saint Louis to just 11. The Jayhawks also grabbed 17 of their 48 rebounds in the fourth as they finished off the victory.
Up Next
The Jayhawks are headed to Las Vegas to take on Tennessee on Friday, Nov. 26 in the South Point Shootout. Tipoff is set for 5:30 CT and will be broadcast on Flosports.
Notes
- Kansas extends their win streak to four against Saint Louis, 6-1 in program history and 3-0 in Lawrence.
- In the first half Kansas went 8-of-10 from the line (80%), tying a season-high from Omaha on Wednesday, Nov. 17.
- Danai Papadopoulou played 19 minutes on Sunday after totaling 23 minutes of action in the first three games combined. With her play against SLU, she doubles her average minutes played for the season.
- Kansas scored 28 points in the third quarter after being held to a season-low 27 points in the first half. The 28 points is the most by KU this season in the third quarter.
- Sophomore Mia Vuksic went 4-of-4 from behind the arc.
