Lady Roos battle toward the tournament
David Jordan
Issue date: 2/23/09 Section: Sports
|
This past Saturday, by wearing pink, the crowd and the UMKC Lady Kangaroos gave honor and reverence to the late, great Kay Yow who died of breast cancer on Jan. 24, 2009.
Yow, head coach at North Carolina State University from 1975 onward, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1987.
At the time of her death, Yow had 737 victories, which is fifth all-time for NCAA Division 1 women's basketball. She was only the fifth woman to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
When action tipped off at 4 p.m. against Oral Roberts University (ORU), the Roos came out of the gate like race horses, smoking the Golden Eagles and opening up the game on a 13-0 run.
The Roos started off the game by knocking down three consecutive three-pointers, one from junior guard Chazny Morris and two from freshman guard LeAndrea Thomas. The Roos were in complete control in the first half, leading by as many as 14 (37-23) at the 2:34 mark.
Heading into halftime, the score was 37-25 and Morris was on her way to another spectacular performance. She already had 13 points and Thomas had eight.
As the second half commenced, the Eagles started to fly a little bit, but the Roos clipped their wings. UMKC managed to get another 14-point lead (45-31) at the 12:21 mark. Then the Eagles went on an 8-0 run to cut the lead to five (45-40).
Keeping their poise, the Roos got the lead back up to nine (51-42) at the 6:45 mark, but the Eagles would not go away, and mustered another 7-0 run, cutting the lead to two. The Eagles were truly a resilient team and managed to tie the game (55-55) with 1:06 remaining.
The Roos had a chance to seal the game down the stretch from the foul line, but failed to do so. They missed three one-and-one free-throw attempts, and then allowed Oral Roberts to take the lead off a lay-up by freshman guard Jordan Pyle (55-57) with 20 seconds to go.
With the ball in Morris's hands in a clutch situation she was fouled with five seconds to go.
She missed both her free throw shots and the Eagles went on to win the game with a final score of 55-58.
"Free throws are very crucial and we didn't make them today," Thomas said.
Thomas had a decent game with 15 points and three steals.
Be the first to comment on this story