Kangaroos To Host IUPUI In Kemper Arena On Saturday Afternoon
1/30/2009 4:00:00 PM | Women's Basketball
The Setting
The UMKC women's basketball team will return to action on Saturday afternoon when it welcomes IUPUI to Kansas City. The Kangaroos and Jaguars will square off at 4 p.m. at Kemper Arena in the opening game of a UMKC-IUPUI doubleheader.
UMKC is 9-11 overall and 4-5 in The Summit League following a disappointing loss at Oral Roberts on Jan. 26, 68-59. Despite the loss, Chazny Morris led the Kangaroos with 21 points and grabbed five rebounds. Heather Davis finished with 12 points and Kalei Nance led the Kangaroos on the boards with 11.
IUPUI is 10-10 on the season and 5-4 in league play. The Jaguars are led by Jerisha Cann and Julia Whitted. The deadly duo at the point and the post lead their team in scoring, both averaging double figures. Cann is averaging 15.3 points per game, while Whitted averages 13.6. The pair are also no. one and no. two in rebounds. Cann is averaging 11.0 per game and Whitted averages 8.8.
Morris A Part of Elite Group
Chazny Morris is just the ninth player in school history to surpass the 1,000 point mark. The junior hit mark against Western Illinois on Jan. 3 in Macomb, Ill. Morris scored 10 points against the Westerwinds, putting her at 1,005 career-points that night. Entering the contest with IUPUI, Morris is sitting at 1,111 total points scored. She is averaging 18.6 points in the 2008-09 season and for her career, she is averaging 14.2 in 78 games played.
Mariah Davis Laying the Smack Down
Freshman Mariah Davis wrapped up the weekend series at Centenary and Oral Roberts with four blocks. She is sitting at 22 blocks on the season, averaging 1.1 blocks per game. Davis is fourth on the freshman all-time top-10 on the season.
Morris Sitting Pretty at 28-Game Streak
Guard Chazny Morris is currently riding a 28-game streak where the junior has finished the game in double digits. The streak began back in the 2007-08 season where she recorded 17 points against South Dakota State on Feb. 16, 2008. Morris has carried the streak well into the 2008-09 season and has finished with double figures in every game so far this season.
Kangaroos Get Overtime Win Over Jaguars In Summit League Action
UMKC handed IUPUI its first Summit League loss on Jan. 5 with an 80-75 overtime victory at The Jungle. Kalei Nance recorded her second double-double of the 2008-09 season with 17 points and 11 rebounds, while Chazny Morris finished with 21 points and Simone Bridges had a career-high 10 points.
The Kangaroos balanced tough defense with a well executed offense to head into the locker room ahead by three, 27-24. Things wouldn't get interesting until the second half when both teams started to get into their grooves when the Jaguars threatened to hand UMKC its third league loss.
IUPUI took its first lead of the game at the 17 minute mark off of Nicole James three to make the score 30-29, but it wouldn't hold for long with Nance finishing a lay-up to put the Kangaroos back up by one, 33-32, with 14:44 remaining in regulation. On the following possession, the Jaguars would take back the lead and jump ahead by nine points (52-43) with 7:32 remaining.
Morris began to go to work, finishing the second half with 18-of-her-21 points, by sinking two free throws and a jumper to get the `Roos within three, 56-53 with 5:28 left in regulation.
James and Jernisha Cann countered the UMKC offense with free throws and field goals to put the Jaguars up by six (64-58) with just two minutes left in the game. Morris was able to get that down to four (64-60) with another jumper with less than two minutes on the clock.
A pair of Morris free throws with 54 seconds remaining would get UMKC within in two, 64-62. Both teams turned the ball over in the next 40 seconds but the sequence finally ended with a UMKC foul, sending James to the line with nine seconds on the clock. James missed the first and made the second, giving the Jaguars a three-point lead, 65-62. UMKC rebounded the ball and got across the court with head coach Candace Whitaker taking a timeout. With five seconds left on the clock, Morris threw the ball in to LeAndrea Thomas and with one second remaining, the freshman guard shot the ball from the top of the arch and drained the three, sending the game into overtime.
UMKC carried the momentum from regulation into the first overtime period, with Nance leading the way. Nance finished 7-of-8 from the free throw line, while Morris went 10-for-10. Bridges recorded a career-high five steals, leading the Kangaroos to 15 total steals. Thomas also finished the night in double figures, with 10 points. UMKC improves to 7-8 on the season and 2-2 in The Summit League, while IUPUI drops to 7-7 and 2-1 in the league.
