Kansas St. forces No. 24 Kansas into frigid shooting, defeats Jayhawks 59-35

Kansas State routs No. 24 Kansas 59-35

MANHATTAN, Kan. — Instead of drawing closer, the gap between the Kansas and Kansas State women’s programs is going into the record books.

Ashley Sweat scored 24 points and Kansas State held No. 24 Kansas to only 35 points — tying the all-time low for the Jayhawk women — in a 59-35 rout Saturday.

The Jayhawks trailed 24-22 at halftime but missed their first 14 shots of the second half and didn’t get a bucket until Monica Engelman connected with 6:30 to go.

By then, the Wildcats (9-6, 1-0 Big 12) held a commanding 52-27 lead and were on their way to the 17th win in their last 18 meetings with their state rivals. Kansas (13-4, 0-1) has lost nine in a row on the Wildcats’ home court.

“Gut-wrenching would be the word that I would use,” Kansas coach Bonnie Henrickson said when asked to describe the game. Henrickson fell to 1-11 against her archrival.

“Publicly, gut-wrenching is the word I would use,” she said.

Danielle McCray, the Big 12’s second-leading scorer, had a double-double for the Jayhawks (10-4, 0-1) with 10 points and 11 rebounds. But like everyone else in a Kansas uniform, she was unable to hit anything for most of the decisive second half.

“In the second half, we just couldn’t make a shot for nothing,” McCray said. “We weren’t aggressive on the boards, nothing was falling for us, our second-chance points weren’t there.”

The Jayhawks did not have a field goal in the final 1 minute, 10 seconds of the first half, so their drought totaled 14 minutes, 40 seconds.

“Seniors, whatever level you play, wherever you play, have to take some ownership,” Henrickson said. “You’ve got to bring what you can bring and we didn’t do that individually and we didn’t do that collectively.”

The Wildcats admitted they were shocked to hold the Jayhawks to such paltry totals.

“I just think we team-defended so well today,” Sweat said. “We played really smart. Everybody who came into the game was accountable. That was so huge, showing the maturity of our team.”

Working mostly against Kansas State reserves, the Jayhawks avoided going into the record book with their lowest total by scoring eight points in the final minutes. For the game, they shot 26 percent, were 0 for 11 from 3-point range and committed 20 turnovers.

As the rout developed, the crowd got louder and louder.

“We love playing KU,” said senior guard Kari Kincaid. “The atmosphere, our fans. It was alive out there. It was electric. It was so much fun to be part of that atmosphere and be on that court.”

Aishah Sutherland, who led Kansas with 12 points, added a basket with 1:03 left to assure the Jayhawks of no worse than tying their record low, last set against Baylor on Jan. 16, 2008.

After Engelman finally made a short shot to end the drought, the Wildcats quickly scored four points to go up 56-27 on Sweat’s bucket.

Kansas actually scored first in the second half on a free throw by McCray that pulled them to within one point. But the nightmare began slowly unfolding for the Jayhawks on one missed shot after another, one turnover followed by another. They had shots rim out and they put up air balls.

One by McCray sailed right into the hands of a Kansas State defender and the Wildcats converted on the other end when Jalana Childs leaned in for a bucket and a 38-24 lead.

The Jayhawks opened cold, missing their first 11 shots. But Kansas State wasn’t much sharper, hitting only 3 of 11 and taking a 6-0 lead before Angela Goodrich finally broke through with Kansas’ first basket.

Sutherland hit three straight baskets and ignited a 12-3 run that brought the Jayhawks all the way back to tie it 16-all. Sweat’s two free throws sent the Wildcats into intermission with a 24-22 lead.

“I thought, ‘OK, it looks like we have grown and found some poise,’” Henrickson said. “Then we came out in the second half and laid an egg, which we have done a couple of times this year.”

Childs had 15 points and Taelor Karr added 10 points for Kansas State.

It’s the second straight year Kansas has been embarrassed in Manhattan. Last year, the Jayhawks lost 72-39.