Kansas City
5-11,1-4Summit League
Oral Roberts
5-11,2-3Summit League
Dominant Second Half Leads KC over Oral Roberts
1/7/2023 5:33:00 PM | Women's Basketball
The Roos got their first win of conference play behind 20 points from Rain Green and a Manna Mensah double-double
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - A dominant second half gave Kansas City Women's Basketball (5-11, 1-4 Summit) a good start to 2023, defeating Oral Roberts (5-11, 2-3 Summit), 65-54, for its first Summit League win of the season. Rain Green led the Roos' scoring efforts, finishing with 20, within one of her career-high mark.
The Roos entered the half down by two points, and the Golden Eagles extended the lead to six early in the third. Then, Manna Mensah stepped up. She knocked down a three-pointer and on the next possession finished through contact for an and-one, giving KC a lead that it would not surrender for the rest of the game.
Mensah finished with Kansas City's first double-double of the year and the first of her career, notching 12 points and a career-high 12 rebounds. E'Lease Stafford added 18 points, seven rebounds, three assists, two steals and two blocks.
KEY MOMENTS
- 1Q - 3:50 / 6-6 | After a slow start for both sides, Zaire Harrell drew a double-team and went over the top, finding Jocelyn Ewell for a layup that tied things up early.
- 1Q - 0:20 / 10-8 | Stafford scored four points in the span of 21 seconds, taking Kansas City into the first quarter break with a lead.
- 2Q - 1:25 / 20-24 | The Golden Eagles went on a nine-point run to go up by six, their largest lead of the game. Green drove for a layup, putting an end to the run.
- 3Q - 6:37 / 33-32 | Oral Roberts opened the second half by extending its lead back to as many as six. Mensah nailed her lone three-pointer of the game to spark a KC run, and after a Green steal she finished through contact to give the Roos the lead.
- 3Q - 4:37 / 41-34 | Green found Stafford for a three-pointer from the top of the key, capping a 13-2 Kansas City run.
3Q | @eleasekstafford with the three and the Roos are on a 13-2 run ?? pic.twitter.com/sWZ5YObGZu
— Kansas City Women's Basketball (@KCRoosWBB) January 7, 2023
- 4Q - 8:13 / 54-43 | The Roos opened the fourth quarter with back-to-back buckets from Tamia Ugass, claiming their first double-digit lead of the game.
- 4Q - 1:53 / 63-51 | Kansas City held ORU without a field goal for a span of over six minutes, extending the lead to 12 on a floater by Green.
STATS TO NOTE
- Oral Roberts entered today's game averaging 75.3 points per game, the best scoring offense in the Summit League. The 54-point showing tonight was ORU's lowest scoring output on the season.
- Mensah's 12-point, 12-rebound performance was the first double-double by a Roo since Kiara Bradley and Paige Bradford both notched one in the Summit League Quarterfinals against North Dakota State on Mar. 6, 2022.
- ORU's 16.7% three-point clip was tied for the lowest by a Kansas City opponent this season.
- Ewell finished the day with three blocks, bringing her season average to 1.3 per game, fifth-best in the Summit this season.
- The Roos notched 10 steals on the day, led by four from Green. KC has had at least 10 takeaways in each of the past four games, the longest streak since the 2018-19 squad logged five-straight from Feb. 21-Mar. 9, 2019.
THE ROOS, QUOTED
Head Coach Dionnah Jackson-Durrett
"I'm proud of (the team). I'm proud of them because we put in a game plan and we stuck to it. It's been a challenge for us lately to stick to the game plan, but … we just had people fight through and really stick to the game plan."
"I think (Mensah) is a great addition to our team, to what we want to do and how aggressive we want to be. This is her fifth game, and she came up with a double-double and played 40 minutes."
Manna Mensah
"It's not just about scoring. Anything I can do to help the team win, I'm going to do. I'm a good rebounder, so when the ball goes up, I'm going to look for it."
UP NEXT
The Roos are on the road next week, traveling to St. Paul, Minn. for a matchup against St. Thomas on Thursday at 7 p.m.
