Kansas City
Chicago State
Senior Help ?Roos Tame Cougars In Chicago
2/8/2014 4:05:00 PM | Women's Basketball
(Chicago, Ill.) – Senior Kim Nezianya finished with 19 points and a career-high tying 17 rebounds and classmate Eilise O'Connor tallied 16 points, 10 assists, six rebounds and three steals as the Kansas City women's basketball team (8-14, 4-5) rolled to an 84-52 win over Chicago State (3-19, 0-9) on Saturday afternoon at the Jones Convocation Center.
“Anytime you get a win in conference its exciting,” Head Coach Marsha Frese said. “What we are most happy about though is kicking off the second half of conference play with a win. Our kids did a phenomenal job of recognizing and using their advantages; Eilise setting people up and Kim taking advantage of her size inside. Hopefully this will be the confidence booster we need heading into the second half.”
For Nezianya, this marks her 11th double-double of the season, while O'Connor now has four.
“With them being shorthanded down low, I knew I would have an advantage,” Nezianya said. “Today I was able to get position and capitalize scoring and on the glass.”
As a team, the 'Roos shot 50.7 percent from the field and limited the Cougars to just 33.9 percent, while dominating the glass, out-rebounding CSU 56-25, and out-scoring them 42-20 in the paint and 28-9 off the bench.
From the opening tip, the 'Roos dominated the action, notching 22 of the game's first 26 points.
Nezianya opened the scoring, burying her first two shots, and Leathers followed with a jumper before CSU's first make, while two Grace Mitchell layups sandwiched around a basket from O'Connor stretched the lead to 10 and forced a Cougar timeout.
Chicago State answered with its second field goal of the game before Kansas City reeled off the next 10 points, getting four each from O'Connor and Nezianya during the stretch.
CSU would trim the deficit to 15, but a 12-2 run by the 'Roos pushed the lead to a first half-high 26 with 3:41 left to play before taking a 46-21 lead into the locker room.
At the break, the 46 points matched the 'Roos season-high for points in a half, while the 21 points were the fewest surrendered.
Nezianya, meanwhile, had already amassed her double-double, scoring 15 points and grabbing 12 rebounds at the break.
The 'Roos continued their aggressiveness in the second half, scoring the first four points to stretch the lead to 29.
Chicago State cut the lead back to 25, but UMKC answered with nine of the next 11 points, extending the lead to 63-31 with just under 11 minutes left to play.
Kansas City would go on to build their lead to a game-high 34 on four occasions and CSU would get no closer than 30 the rest of the way as the 'Roos cruised to the victory.
Jordan Evans finished a career-high 10 points and six rebounds, while Mitchell added eight points and five rebounds and Taylor Leathers chipped in eight points and four rebounds.
“I stepped into my role today and took what the defense gave me,” Evans said. “With the players they had available I knew I'd be able to run on them and I had success today doing that.”
The Blue & Gold will be back in action on Thursday when they return to Kansas City, to take on New Mexico State in WAC play at 7 p.m. in the Swinney Recreation Center.
