Bluejay WBB Heads To Lawrence to Face Kansas

Omaha, Neb. - Coming off a 2-1 showing at the Lone Star Showcase, the Creighton women's basketball team looks to post consecutive victories over Kansas for the first time since 2002-04. That was also the last time the Bluejays earned a win at Kansas (Dec. 14, 2002).

12/2: - 7:00 pm: Creighton (4-2) at Kansas (3-2)

Video - ESPN3: http://espn.go.com/watchespn/index/_/id/2691318/creighton-vs-kansas
Josh Klingler (Play-by-Play) & Brenda VanLangen (Color Analyst)

Radio - 1180 AM: Brad Burwell (Play-by-Play) & Glen Sisk (Color Analyst)

Stats (Free): http://creighton.statbroadcast.com

Series History: Kansas leads 25-13
Creighton won last meeting, 84-81 last season

Download Full Notes:

Bird Seeds:

Creighton enters Wednesday's contest at Allen Fieldhouse coming off an overtime victory versus Eastern Washington in the final game of the Lone Star Showcase.
The last overtime game the Bluejays played was last season against Kansas, 84-81.
Creighton is 5-15 at Kansas, with the last victory coming in 2002 (72-58).
The Bluejays' win last season ended an 11-game losing streak to the Jayhawks.
Wednesday's contest will be the Bluejays' fifth consecutive game away from home. After opening the season against Wichita State and Marist in D.J. Sokol Arena, the Bluejays are in the midst of a seven-game stretch on the road.
Jade Owens is expected to make her first start as the Bluejays' point guard.
The battle with the Jayhawks will be the first time that new Kansas head coach, Brandon Schneider, faces Creighton. Just before Schneider took over at Stephen F. Austin in 2010, the Lumberjacks dropped a WNIT game to the Bluejays on March 19 in Omaha.
Kansas will face back-to-back BIG EAST teams, battling St. John's on Dec. 6.

Scouting Kansas (3-2)
The Jayhawks are coming off their first road trip of the season, having played a true road contest at Arizona and two neutral games in the SMU Thanksgiving tournament. Kansas went 1-2 away from Allen Fieldhouse, dropping game to Arizona (67-52) and at SMU (73-64).

Kansas has shown a balanced scoring attack in the early portion of the season, led by Lauren Aldridge's 13.2 ppg. Caelynn Manning-Allen is coming into her own at the five as well (10.8 ppg).

The Jayhawks have a tendancy to get sloppy with the basketball, committing 91 turnovers thus far (18.2 tpg). Another area of concern for the Jayhawks is free-throw shooting, Kansas enters Wednesday's contest just 50-of-80 (62.5%) from the charity stripe.

Keys to the Game w/Kansas

Adjusting to new roles: Injuries to Rollerson and Janning will force the Bluejays into new roles. How quickly this adjustment occurs is crucial to Wednesday and to the season.
Handling zone defense: The Bluejays have struggled in the last few games against zone. As a result Creighton expects to see more of it. The Bluejays must score enough to push Kansas out of zone.
Rebound: Kansas has 77 offensive boards in just five games (15.4 orpg). Creighton needs to take away the extra opportunities from the Jayhawks.

Injury Bug Has Been Biting the Bluejays
Coach Flanery will be looking for some extra strength bug repellant as over the past two weeks Creighton seen more than its share of bites.

Just before the Bluejays battle with Drake on Nov. 24, junior Brianna Rollerson was sidelined in practice with a Jones fracture to her left foot.

Just a few days later senior Marissa Janning suffered a fractured fibia in the closing moments of the fourth quarter during Creighton's 66-60 overtime win versus Eastern Washington.

Both Rollerson and Janning are expected to be sidelined at least 6-8 weeks.

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Players Mentioned

Marissa Janning

Jade Owens

Brianna Rollerson