The Kansas Jayhawks have received votes in the latest AP Top 25 poll. Now the Bearcats know why.
The Binghamton University women’s basketball team was blown out by Big 12 foe Kansas 77-53 on the strength of two incredible scoring runs by the Jayhawks Sunday afternoon in Lawrence. It was the first game of the season for both squads.
Kansas (1-0) rattled off a 19-2 run early in the first half with the score 7-6 and Binghamton (0-1) never quite recovered. BU briefly tried to rally back, cutting the deficit to 30-16 before Kansas stunned them again by scoring 18 of the next 20 points. When the buzzer sounded to end the first half, the Bearcats found themselves trailing 48-22.
“Kansas is a very good team,” said head coach Rich Conover. “Their attack exposes you right off the bat on what you need to work on.”
The Bearcats would go on to outscore the Jayhawks 31-29 in the second half despite shooting just 30 percent from the field, but it was too little too late.
Senior Rachel Laws led the Bearcats with a game-high 20 points and 10 rebounds, for her 17th career double-double. Laws also scored her 1,000th collegiate point, becoming the first BU player to achieve that feat since the program moved to the Division I level, and the eighth overall.
Junior Rebecca Lindgren added nine points to help the Bearcats on the offensive end, while sophomore Brianna Thompson netted seven points and five boards. Aside from Laws, the starting five combined to score just 13 points.
Binghamton travels to Fairleigh Dickinson to play the Knights Wednesday at 2 p.m. FDU (1-1) was picked to finish 10th out of 11 teams in the NEC, and most recently fell to UMBC 76-58. The Bearcats will then return home to host Canisius on Saturday at 1 p.m.