Kangaroos Fall To South Dakota State 76-63

Monday, January 21

Brookings, S.D.

7:00 p.m. CT

Kansas City

South Dakota State

Kangaroos Fall To South Dakota State 76-63

1/21/2008 10:30:00 PM | Women's Basketball

By: UMKC Athletics

Brookings, S.D. -- Even with a perfect (6-of-6) shooting night pushing Alysa Klein past the 1,000 point plateau and a 24-point outing from Chazny Morris, UMKC wasn't able to pick up its first road Summit League Win on Monday, dropping a 76-63 result to South Dakota State.

Both teams squandered early opportunities inside the first minute of the contest, but South Dakota State was able to eke out an early 4-3 lead.

UMKC kept close throughout the first 10 minutes of the half, knotting the game at 17-17 with 10:03 left. Morris hit a three-pointer, one of four early first-half triples for the Kangaroos. South Dakota State responded, hitting on one of two free throws, but Klein gave the Kangaroos a 19-18 lead with a layup.

The Kangaroos pushed their lead out as far as four, leading 26-22 with 6:03 left in the half, but six turnovers over the next four minutes allowed South Dakota State to close out the half with a 13-2 run. Krystal VanHook scored the lone points for UMKC down the stretch.

Coming out of the locker room, UMKC found itself on the end of a 13-3 run by South Dakota State over the first 5:06, trailing 46-31.

With just over 13 minutes left, Picconi and VanHook hit jumpers on consecutive UMKC possessions to stanch the bleeding at 47-35. However, the Jackrabbits rattled off eight unanswered points to lead 55-35 with 10:14 left in the game.

A jumper by VanHook with 10:01 left sparked a hot-shooting run for UMKC, as the Kangaroos missed just two of nine attempts from the floor and over a span of nearly five minutes. Along with three free throws by Morris over the span, UMKC closed to within eight, trailing 63-55 with 5:18 left.

As quickly as UMKC had narrowed down the lead, three consecutive three-point misses allowed the Jackrabbits to stretch their cushion back to 15.

UMKC was forced to foul down the stretch, but was unable to make up any ground, falling 76-63 on the night.

Morris led all scorers with 24 points on the night, shooting 10-of-11 from the free throw line. Klein and Brittny Picconi were also in double figures, adding 12 and 11 respectively. Klein added eight rebounds and four blocks as well.

Jen Warkenthien led the Jackrabbits with 22 points, with Maria Boever adding 18 and Ketty Cornemann contributing 12. Boever and Warkenthien each grabbed eight rebounds for South Dakota State, who enjoyed a 40-27 edge on the night.

UMKC outshot the Jackrabbits from the floor, hitting 44.9 percent (22-49) of its shots to just 38.6 percent (22-57) for SDSU, but the Kangaroos sent the Jackrabbits to the free-throw line 44 times on the evening, where SDSU made 30, to just 12-of-14 for UMKC.

The Kangaroos (8-10, 1-6 Summit) return home for a doubleheader on Saturday against Centenary. The game, set for a 4 p.m. tipoff from Kemper Arena, will also be broadcast on Metro Sports.