Hawking Points: Jayhawks ride huge run to dominant 87-66 win over #4 Bears
Kansas senior center Taiyanna Jackson couldn't help but smile as she was interviewed after the Jayhawks pulled off their biggest win of the season on Wednesday night. "We had so much fun playing," Jackson explained. And fun was something that the team needed after a rough start to the conference season.
There were plenty of reasons to be worried about the Kansas Jayhawks coming into tonight's game against the Baylor Bears, as they had suffered three straight losses after big second half collapses. But Jackson got started early and never stopped, pacing the Jayhawks to a huge win with a performance that put her over 1,000 points in her career.
Freshman S'mya Nichols and senior Holly Kersgieter joined in on the fun with big games of their own, as the Jayhawks used a 33-8 run over a 13 minute span of game time to seize control of the game.
Key Plays
The game started out just like any other, with the Jayhawks starting strong while their opponent looked to be getting hot from three. Kansas jumped out to a 5-0 lead, but Baylor used two quick threes and two free throws to take an 8-7 lead. The first quarter went back and forth, with Baylor shooting a red-hot 75.0% from three and 53.3% from the field. Kansas leaned on Taiyanna Jackson, who scored 7 in the opening quarter with 5 rebounds. Kansas trailed 21-18 after the first quarter.
Jackson kept it going in the second quarter, pulling down 8 more rebounds to go with 4 more points. Baylor was able to get to the line to build an 8-point lead with just 2:50 to go in the half, but Kansas used an 8-0 run at the end of the half to tie the game up at the buzzer.
The second half saw Kansas take control of the game early and never look back. Four different players scored the first four buckets, as Kansas started with an 8-0 run on their way to 13 point lead just 3:30 into the third quarter. Each of the Kansas starters made at least 2 baskets in the quarter, and the Jayhawks pushed the lead all the way to 16. Baylor missed all six of their three point attempts in the quarter, and shot just 21.4%
And it only got slightly better for the Bears in the fourth quarter. They shot a respectable 8-18, but only hit 1 of 8 three point attempts. Baylor was able to get the lead down to 14 a couple times, but each time Kansas got a big bucket to push the lead back up. And in a show of just how important of a statement this game was, Kansas scored the last 6 points of the game to push the final margin to 21.
Eye-Catching Stat Lines
Taiyanna Jackson had a career-high 27 points to go with her 19 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 blocks and 2 steals.
S'mya Nichols finished with 22 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 block and 3 steals.
Holly Kersgieter finishes with 19 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 steal. She was 3-6 from three.
Baylor shot only 20% from three-point range. Coming into the game, they were shooting 39.0% on the season.
The Jayhawks shot 52% from the field while outrebounding the Bears by 17.
Areas of Improvement
Free throws. Kansas went just 54% from the line, missing 12 of their 26 attempts. Taiyanna Jackson, who was only shooting 40.4% on the year, wasn't the issue tonight, as she went 9-14. But it's hard to find anything else from such a dominant victory.
Takeaways
This is the type of performance that many expected the Jayhawks to be able to put together in the Big 12 this year, as they were picked to finish third. It is fair to point out how poorly the Bears shot from three to make this win possible. But it is just as fair to point out that the last three opponents shot significantly higher than their season averages in second half losses.
The big thing to take away from this game is that the Jayhawks haven't lost their confidence. Jackson talked about how tonight showed they "just wanted it more." And she couldn't stop mentioning about how much fun they had playing again, which hopefully means that they will be able to play this freely in the future.
Up Next
The Jayhawks will look to improve on their 1-3 conference record as they host the Oklahoma State Cowgirls, who are 10-5 overall and 3-1 in the Big 12. Tipoff is scheduled for Saturday, January 13th at 6:30pm.
