Marquette University Athletics
Marquette University
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Kansas
Women's Basketball Can't Overcome Early Deficit, Falls to Kansas, 74-55
12/6/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 6, 2007
LAWRENCE, Kan. - The Marquette women's basketball team couldn't erase an early 10-point deficit in the opening minutes and fell, 74-55, at Kansas Thursday night at Allen Fieldhouse. With the loss, the Golden Eagles drop to 4-3 overall, while the Jayhawks improve to 6-1.
Kansas' Danielle McCray led all scorers with 29 points and 13 rebounds. Junior Krystal Ellis led Marquette with a team-high18 points and freshman Tatiyiana McMorris chipped in 12.
The Jayhawks jumped out to a quick 10-0 lead in the first four minutes and never looked back as the Golden Eagles would only come as close as nine points for the rest of the game.
Ellis scored MU's first basket of the game with 14:39 left in the game. From there, the Kansas mounted an 8-0 run to go ahead 18-2. Another 12 points by the Jayhawks over the next five minutes gave Kansas its largest lead of the first half, 19 points (30-11) with four minutes to go in the first.
A 3-pointer by freshman Tatiyiana McMorris sparked MU as it took a mini 9-2 run to come within 12 points (30-18), but Kansas scored four more points to close out the first half and go in the locker room with a 14-point lead, 36-22.
The Jayhawks came out of the intermission and kept on their attack as they outscored the Golden Eagles, 38-33, in the second half. Twenty of those points came at the charity stripe.
Ellis scored on back-to-back possessions to put the score at 47-33 with 12:55 remaining, but was called for her fourth foul and was forced to the bench just under 11 minutes left in the game.
The Jayhawks pushed their advantage to 20 points (56-36) with 8:38 left to play and took their largest lead of the game, 21 points, 74-53, with 2:07 remaining.
For the game, the Golden Eagles shot 33.3 percent connecting on 20-of-60 attempts from the floor, while Kansas made 48.9 percent of its field goals. Kansas out-rebounded MU, 43-28.
Ellis and Marissa Thrower combined to score half of Marquette's points in the first frame. Kansas was hot from the floor in the first connecting on 51.7 percent of its attempts while holding the Golden Eagles to a meager 32.3 percent. On the glass, KU dominated 24-12.
The Golden Eagles will take an eight-day break and return to action on Saturday, Dec. 15, when they host Indiana State. Tip-off is set for 4 p.m., at the Al McGuire Center. Dec. 15 is Family Fun Day. Get a game ticket, hot dog and soda all for only $4! For ticket information call (414) 288-GOMU.
Post-game quotes
Head Coach Terri Mitchell
On the game:
"We cannot come on the road and play the way we did in the first 12 minutes of the game and think we are going to walk away with a victory. Kansas played great. We were just not good. We did not rebound. We did not defend. We were going east and west instead of going to the bucket. All of these things add up to getting into a big hole early. The only thing that I am pleased with is that we fought. There is a lot of fight in us. And if we had that fight in the first 10 minutes, maybe it is a different story, or at least a more entertaining game for the fans that came out."
On Kansas out-rebounding Marquette:
"They did a great job of checking us. We didn't do anything to fight when they did. We did not spin off or juke or do anything. When they got into us, we just conceded to it. We used our zone early and we had great stops, but we just weren't rebounding out of our zone. I was in a dilemma because the zone was stopping them, but we weren't able to rebound out of it."
On having a young ballclub:
"We have six freshmen still trying to figure it out. It's no excuse. We are seven games into the season, but I told them that it is going to take us 13 games for us to figure out the identity and chemistry of this team. We have a winning tradition and we are just going to keep talking about it and never give up on it. This will not keep us from going forward. The 13 non-conference games are all about getting us ready for the conference games in the Big East. It is tough to win on the road. It is a huge lesson and a hard one to take."
On Danielle McCray:
"We talked about her. She had too many open looks. We did not contest her early. She did put some right in our face, though. She was just feeling it and you have those kinds of nights with some players. She made things happen with her offensive rebounding and the fouls. She did unbelievably well and I have a lot of respect for her play and what she is going to do for her team this year."
Junior Guard Krystal Ellis
On the slow start to the game:
"It was their defense. They were pushing us out on the offensive end. We were not able to run our sets like we wanted to. We just were not in sync."
