LAWRENCE, Kan. – Kansas women’s basketball continued its winning ways Thursday night inside Allen Fieldhouse, concluding its four-game homestand with a 72-63 victory over Memphis.
Facing a Memphis team that returned 94 percent of its scoring from last season and claimed nine upperclassmen on its roster, Kansas knew it would have to overcome the experience-gap. Standout performances from newcomers and dominance in the paint made the difference for the Jayhawks. Kansas outrebounded the Tigers 43-29, including 14 offensive boards. The home team also outscored the visitors by 20 points (49-29) in the paint.
Three Jayhawks posted double-figure scoring efforts to earn their squad its second win of the season. Freshman Kylee Kopatich set a career-high with 14 points on 50 percent shooting, including two triples. Junior forward Jada Brown and sophomore guard Lauren Aldridge each logged 10 points. Redshirt-junior guard Timeka O’Neal once again made a living from behind the arc, knocking down three long-range baskets. Freshman guard Jayde Christopher led the team in assists with four, and matched the effort with four points. Freshman forward Tyler Johnson was the only player for either team to reach the double-figure mark in rebounds, grabbing 10 boards.
Memphis logged three double-digit scorers of its own, with Ariel Hearn and Brianna Wright tying for a game-high of 15 points each. Hearn shot a perfect 6-of-6 from the free throw line and tied with Mooriah Rowser for a team-high four assists. Asianna Fuqua-Bey scored 12 points on 6-of-9 shooting.
Freshman guard Aisia Robertson kicked off the evening with a layup to give Kansas the early lead. Brown claimed a layup of her own before Wright posted the first points for Memphis. Johnson entered the game at the 7:18 mark and immediately made her presence known when she gathered the rebound off a missed jumper from Brown, put back a layup that bounced out, gathered another rebound and this time found the bottom of the net on her layup attempt. Sophomore Chayla Cheadle repeated the performance two possessions later with a put-back off an offensive rebound of her own. On the very next play, O’Neal drained a long-range bucket to give the Jayhawks a seven-point lead on five unanswered points.
With under three minutes remaining in the quarter, junior forward Caelynn Manning-Allen drove across the lane and drew a foul, earning two free throws. After sinking the first, Memphis’ Hearn was assessed a technical foul. Kopatich converted on one of her two free throws given for the technical. Manning-Allen then returned to the line, and despite missing on her attempt, Kansas retained possession and she finished the play with another layup, pushing the Jayhawk lead to eight. In a span of 90 seconds, the Tigers surged back to tie the game, with five of the eight points coming from Hearn.
However, the final minute would belong to Kansas. Johnson put in her second layup with just 28 seconds on the clock. Cheadle then stole the ball on the next possession and took it all the way to hoop. Memphis then got into its offense, setting up the final play of the quarter. Robertson had different plans, coming up with yet another steal for the Jayhawks and laid the ball into the basket just as time expired.
Offensive rebounds continued to pay off for Kansas in the second quarter. Kopatich missed on the front end of a three-point attempt, but followed her own rebound and kicked the ball back out to Aldridge for a three of her own -her first points of the night. Once again, Memphis answered with a quick run. Another eight-point streak cut the Kansas lead to a single point. Kopatich tilted the momentum back to Kansas with the home team’s third triple of the night. Memphis turned the ball over on their next two trips down the floor, and the Jayhawks capitalized on each to re-establish their eight-point advantage.
Despite making five of its last six field goal attempts of the second quarter, Kansas managed to only carry a one-point lead into the intermission. This was due to the home team only attempting four field goals in the final five minutes of the quarter, while the Tigers closed out the period with three-straight makes, two of those coming from long distance. Both teams shot over 50 percent in the first half of action, with Kansas holding the advantage over the visitors, 54-52. Kopatich’s team-leading nine points also matched her career-high from the opening game of the season. Hearn led Memphis with 13 points, including a perfect 3-of-3 from three-point range.
The shooting cooled off for both teams, after returning to the floor for the second half. Memphis shot only 23 percent in the third period while Kansas knocked down 44 percent of their shots. The two teams shot a combined 0-of-5 from the three-point line. As the clock dipped below the five-minute mark in the third quarter, the Jayhawks ran their offensive set for nearly the entire shot clock before Kopatich found Cheadle on the baseline, who battled through a foul to put in a last-second layup. The play sent the Kansas bench into a frenzy and pushed the lead to three points.
As the Tigers endured a drought of four-consecutive missed field goals, the Jayhawks tried to push the lead. Johnson converted her third layup of the evening on the next possession, but Hearn responded by drawing a foul on the other end and draining both free throws. Kopatich continued her career night with her fourth field goal of the night, followed up by Christopher, who shook off a defender with a shoulder fake and sunk a jumper. Two made free throws from Memphis’ Mooriah Rowswer proved to be the final points of the quarter, as the Jayhawks carried a five-point lead into the final 10 minutes of action.
The Jayhawks were not interested in surrendering the lead in the fourth quarter. Five of the first seven shots from the home team found the bottom of the net, including two more three-pointers from O’Neal. Memphis would not be quieted, posting the exact same 5-of-7 shooting to remain within four points with 4:53 left in the game. While both teams found their rhythm in the top half of the quarter, the last four minutes proved to be a shooting struggle.
A scoring drought of 3:49 was finally ended by a Kopatich layup with 1:04 on the clock. After a missed three from Rowser, Aldridge earned a trip to the line and netted both free throws to extend the lead to eight points. Aldridge tacked on a final free throw with 21 seconds on the clock to seal the Jayhawks’ second victory of the season.
Rowser’s three-pointer at the 4:53 mark were the final points for Memphis, as the Tigers were held scoreless for the remainder of the game on 0-of-9 shooting and fell to Kansas by a score of 72-63.
— KU Athletics —