Kangaroos Open Home Schedule Sunday Against Air Force
11/10/2007 9:30:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Game 2 ? UMKC vs. Air Force
Sunday, November 11 ? 2 p.m.
Kansas City, Mo. -- Swinney Recreation Center (1,500)
UMKC looks to follow up on its season-opening win on Sunday, hosting
Air Force in a 2 p.m. contest at Swinney Recreation Center. The game
marks the first time that the Kangaroos have faced any of the service
academies in the program's history.
By The Numbers
Looking just at the scorelines from Friday's season opener for both
teams paints a very rosy picture for UMKC. Although the Kangaroos are a
better shooting team overall than the Falcons, Air Force is better in
the specialty disciplines, hitting at a .308 clip from three to just a
.250 mark for UMKC and holding a .733-.657 edge from the line. UMKC is
the better team statistically across the board, holding edges in
assists, turnovers, steals and blocks.
| | fg% | 3fg% | ft% | reb | a | to | stl | blk | pts |
| USAFA | .333 | .308 | .733 | 30.0 | 8.0 | 26.0 | 8.0 | 3.0 | 49.0 |
| UMKC | .397 | .250 | .657 | 35.0 | 16.0 | 20.0 | 18.0 | 5.0 | 73.0 |
About The Falcons
Three starters and 11 letterwinners return from last year's Falcon squad that finished with a 6-23 overall record. Although they struggled to just a 1-15 record in Mountain West play, the Falcons bring back 66.8 percent of their scoring punch as head coach Ardie McInelly enters her seventh season.
Alecia Steele is the top returner for Air Force, averaging 12.1 points and 7.9 rebounds per game last season. Also expected to have an impact is senior Pamela Findlay, who struggled with an elbow injury all of last season to hit just 27 percent from three-point range after averaging a 42.4 percent clip in her freshman and sophomore seasons.
Air Force will also look for positive contributions from Raimee Beck, a standout in a five-member freshman class for Coach McInelly.
Last Time Out For The Kangaroos
The first full season of the Candace White-Whitaker era started exactly as her tenure did, as UMKC downed Central Arkansas on the road by a 73-63 margin. Sophomore Chazny Morris had a career-best performance and the Kangaroos trailed for just 1:24 in the contest, rolling to the first season-opening win by a UMKC women's basketball team since the 2003-04 season.
UMKC jumped out to an early 8-2 lead, with Krystal VanHook having a hand in the first three Kangaroo baskets. She scored the first bucket, forced a steal for a fast break bucket by Morris and dished to Alysa Klein for the third.
The Kangaroos hit a bit of a cold spell but managed to hang on to the lead until the 10:21 mark, when Meagen Nickell hit a three-pointer to tie the score at 12-12.
The hosts would take their first lead of the game with 8:46 left in the half on a jumper by Carnisha Bolden. UMKC would fire right back with a klein jumper, but Jamye Adair hit a trey to put the hosts back on top, 19-17.
UMKC shrugged off the short spurt by the Sugar Bears, closing out the half on a 23-9 run. A majority of the Kangaroos scoring came from the free-throw line, as the Kangaroos made 12 of their 16 efforts from the charity stripe, including a 5-of-6 performance by Morris.
Within the first four minutes after the half, UMKC had pushed out to a 48-31 lead, but Central Arkansas doggedly fought back. Hitting four of its next five shots sparked UCA to a 16-2 run. The hosts closed the gap to 50-46 with 11:12 left in the game.
VanHook would link up with Sierra Radke on the next two Kangaroo possessions however to put a halt to the Sugar Bears' push, draining a jumper from the lane off a dish from Radke before feeding Radke for a three-pointer to push UMKC's margin back to a comfortable nine points.
With both teams in the bonus by the 7:59 mark and both in the double bonus by the 1:24 mark, the flow of the game slowed as UMKC coasted to a 10-point win.
Morris led all scorers with 24 points on the evening, adding eight rebounds and five steals. Klein was also in double-digits for the Kangaroos with 11 points, although she was limited to just 23 minutes by foul trouble. VanHook also grabbed eight rebounds for the Kangaroos on the night to go with five points and three assists.
As a team, UMKC outshot Central Arkansas from the floor hitting at a 39.7 percent (23-58) clip to just 37.0 percent (20-54) for the visitors. The Sugar Bears edged out UMKC from beyond the arc (46.2 percent/6-13 to 25.0 percent/4-16), but the Kangaroos made up for it with six more maked from the free throw line (23-35/65.7 percent to 17-28/60.7 percent) on the evening.
Meagan Nickell led the hosts with 14 points on the night, with Meaghen Kelleybrew adding 13 and Adair contributing 11. Adair also grabbed eight boards for the Sugar Bears, who outrebounded the Kangaroos by a scant 39-35 margin on the night.
Starting Fast
In her first full season at the helm for UMKC, head coach Candace White-Whitaker is jumping in with both feet, as her squad opens the regular season with four games over a span of eight days. The Kangaroos opened the 2007-08 campaign with a road contest at Central Arkansas on November 9 before returning home to face the Lady Falcons of Air Force on Sunday. After a mid-week jaunt to Lawrence to take on Kansas, UMKC wraps up the busy stretch with a home game against Northern Colorado on November 17.
The Kangaroos will be rewarded for the busy start with a holiday break, however, as UMKC is not scheduled to play a contest for a 12-day span stretching between December 19 and January 2.
Fantastic First
UMKC's season-opening win at Central Arkansas was the first win to start a campaign since the 2003-04 season, when Dana Eikenberg's squad downed Kansas by a 63-50 margin. To find the last time the Kangaroos opened up the road portion of their slate with a win you have to go all the way back to the 20th century, as UMKC defeated SE Missouri State 71-70. The game would later be forfeited by UMKC although the result was not vacated by the NCAA.
Fans will certainly hope that Candace White-Whitaker doesn't follow in the footsteps of her predecessors, as those victories came in their final seasons as head coach.
Klein, Morris Tabbed As Preseason All-Summit Stars
UMKC landed two players on all-conference teams during the preseason polling of coaches, media and sports information directors in The Summit League. Alysa Klein was tabbed as a first team honoree, while Chazny Morris was named to the second team.
The Kangaroos fell two spots in this year's preseason rankings, as they were predicted to finish seventh out of the league's 10 teams. Oral Roberts was again selected as the preseason favorite despite garnering only 10 first-place votes to 14 for debutantes South Dakota State University.
Block Party
After setting a new Division I-era single-season record with 73 blocks last season, Alysa Klein sits just five blocks shy of the top career mark of 144, held by Lauren Powers. The Okoboji, Iowa, native's career average of 1.6 blks/gm is the third best in program history, and projects to a final mark of 170. However, a double-century mark is not out of reach should the senior return to the pace she enjoyed on the 2006-07 season.
- Lauren Powers 144 b 103 g 1.4
- Alysa Klein 137 b 87 g 1.6
- Joy Ommen 75 b 21 g 3.6
- LaRonna Lassiter 63 b 103 g 0.6
- Georgia Bivens 61 b 53 g 1.2
On The Glass
With the concentration on Alysa Klein's move into the second spot on the all-time blocks list at UMKC, her appearance among the top 10 rebounders slid under the radar. With 508 career grabs, the senior from Okoboji, Iowa currently sits in seventh, needing just 16 rebounds to move into the top five. If she is able to duplicate her pace from the 2006-07 season, Klein can reach second spot on the list, although claiming a second top spot would take a monstrous effort.
- Laurie Smith 864 r 123 g 7.0
- Stephanie Worthy 696 r 67 g 10.4
- Darci Haas 654 r 106 g 6.2
- Lauren Powers 600 r 103 g 5.9
- Mary Michalski 524 r 55 g 9.5
- Liz Obrecht 510 r 112 g 4.6
- Alysa Klein 508 r 87 g 5.8
Making It Count
In addition to her positions in the career top 10 lists for rebounds and blocks, Alysa Klein is set to make an appearance in a third list for the Kangaroos this season, as she has made 331 field goals during her career, needing just 20 to equal the mark set by Amy Thompson.
Speed Kills
In UMKC's exhibition game against Oklahoma Panhandle State University, junior Taushelle Rushing nabbed eight steals in the game, including six in the first half.
The mark matched the single-game record for the Kangaroos, set by Jennifer Sposato against Buffalo on February 2, 1997, although it won't go down in the books as the contest was an exhibition.
She started the regular season with a flourish, swiping four on UMKC's 18 in the season opener at Central Arkansas.
The transfer from Seward County CC set a single-season NJCAA Region XI record with 215 swipes as a sophomore, finishing with 303 on her career to put her second in the SCCC record books.
Near Misses
In UMKC's exhibition contest against Oklahoma Panhandle State University, the Kangaroos had three players within reach of double-double marks on the night. Taushelle Rushing finished two steals shy of the double, dropping 10 points to go with her eight swipes on the afternoon. Krystal VanHook was also close, with her team-best 18 points and seven rebounds coming up just short as well. Heather Wimberly was the closest of the three, needing just one more dish to hit a double-double (10 pts, 9 a) on the day. She was also within reach of a triple-double, finishing with seven rebounds (3 o, 4 d) in the contest.
Youth Is Served
Sophomore Chazny Morris made an immediate impact after winning a spot in the starting rotation a third of the way through the 2006-07 season. She finished the year averaging 8.9 pts/gm, good for third on the team and enough to earn a spot on the all-Newcomer team and win the 2007 Mid-Con Newcomer of the Year award - marking the second consecutive season that a Kangaroo laid claim to the honor. She finished with a .440 mark from beyond the arc, the best-ever single-season freshman (and third-best overall) mark in program history.
After capping her season with a 21-point performance against in the Mid-Con Tournament, Morris looks to grow into a leadership role as an underclassman this year for the Kangaroos.
Dialing From Distance
UMKC will look to bring the three-ball back into the act this season after a bit of a slump in the 2006-07 season. Despite holding opponents to just a .331 clip from beyond the arc last year, UMKC struggled with its own shooting from distance, mustering just a .296 clip, finishing the season with 12 fewer three-point than in 2005-06 despite having an extra game on the slate. Chazny Morris will be counted upon to continue her shooting success, with Brittny Picconi looking to return to the levels from the 2005-06 season.
Morris From Three
Chazny Morris set a freshman record last season, nailing 37 of 84 attempts from three-point range, a 44.0 percent mark, also good for the third-best all-time single-season mark, just three tenths of a percent behind Veda McNeal.
Although Morris struggled in the season opener at Central Arkansas, she remains in the top five all-time with a .419 success rate from distance
- Eve Barry 28-61 .459
- Broda Dickerson 31-73 .425
- Julie Jenson 98-232 .422
- Chazny Morris 39-93 .419
- Kelly Walden 95-243 .391
Seward County Connections
With her success as a player at Seward County (Kan.) Community College, it is only reasonable that head coach Candace White-Whitaker would look close to home on the recruiting trail. Senior Sierra Radke and junior Taushelle Rushing both come to the Kangaroos following successful careers with the Lady Saints.
Youth Is Served Again...
Currently the youngest head coach at the Division I level, Candace White-Whitaker is also one of the youngest head coaches in recent women's basketball history. At the time of her appointment as the interim head coach last year, White-Whitaker was just 26 years, 239 days old.
She comes from a strong background of young coaches, as her mentor at Valparaiso, Keith Freeman, made his entry into the profession at the tender age of 19. Freeman helmed the women's basketball team at Huntington (Ind.) College during the 1983-84 season.
Although impressive, White-Whitaker isn't even the youngest head coach at her own institution. That honor belongs to Meredith Smith, head softball coach, who was a mere 25 years, 166 days old at the time of her appointment.
UMKC has a history of taking a chance on young coaches, as no fewer than nine coaches have been appointed before their 30th birthday. Angela Garbe was the youngest, taking the reins of the women's tennis team in September 1991 at the age of 22 years, 264 days.
Texas Home Cooking
In addition to his local ties - he served as an assistant coach at the University of Missouri from 1998 to 2000 - associate head coach Brett Schneider claims the same hometown as head coach Candace White-Whitaker. A strong recruiter, Schneider has a strong family background in basketball, as his father Bob claimed over 1,000 victories over a 43-year career. His brother, Brandon, currently serves as head women's basketball coach for Emporia State University, while his sister, Brooke, was a letterwinner at West Texas A&M.
Kangaroo Recruiting Class Ranked 38th In The Nation
UMKC's 2007 recruiting class was ranked the 38th-best in the nation by the Dan Olson Collegiate Girls Basketball Report. This is the first time that a UMKC women's basketball recruiting class has been recognized by a national publication.
Kangaroos On The Web
New for the 2007-08 season, fans can now watch all of the action of UMKC women's basketball via Summit TV. All of UMKC's non-conference home games as well as every game of the inaugural season in The Summit League will stream live through the World Wide Web as part of the Summit TV package. For more information or to subscribe, visit www.thesummitleague.org and click on the “Summit TV” icon. A full-season package is just $49.95, with individual game purchases also available. As part of the full-season package, fans will also have access to “On-Demand” games, allowing fans to watch any game from the 2007-08 season.
And Live Stats Too...
Also new for the 2007-08 season, a live scoring feed will be available for every home game for UMKC, along with most league contests. Fans can keep tabs on the Kangaroos via www.umkckangaroos.com, the official website of UMKC Athletics. Links will be available for each game via the schedule page.
Reaching For New Heights
The 2007-08 season marks the first for The Summit League, formerly known as the Mid-Continent Conference. The name change is part of a larger initiative, called The Summit Plan, launched by the league's President's Council in June 2007. The initiative looks to improve the overall athletic image of the conference and bring a more intense focus to the overall welfare of the student-athletes at the member institutions.
In addition to the name change, the league welcomes three new schools to the mix for the 2007-08 season. IPFW, North Dakota State University and South Dakota State University join the conference to push its ranks to 10. Valparaiso, a founding member of the conference, departed for the Horizon League at the conclusion of the 2006-07 academic year.
