3 months ago
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The Bears (1-2) faced one of the perennial national powers in front of a full house of 16,300 at storied Allen Fieldhouse. The Bears trailed for all but the opening two minutes and shot just 25.5 percent for the game (14 of 55). Still, Chappell said it was a worthwhile trip.
"When you get beat 94-44, it's kind of hard to spin it that you played pretty good,' said Chappell. "But I don't know that we played bad. We played an awfully, awfully good team that has a lot of weapons. I thought our guys competed hard and they learned some things. We won some individual battles here and there and we learned, "hey, we can guard a good player and get up and put pressure on him.'
"I definitely think we'll take some positives from it.'
The top-ranked Jayhawks, two years removed from a national championship, made 11 of 19 from three-point range and shot 56.9 percent overall. Four players scored in double figures for Kansas and all four had 12 points.
All-American guard Sherron Collins, Marcus Morris, Xavier Henry and Tyrel Reed had 12 apiece, with Reed hitting 4 of 5 from three-point range.
UCA got 11 points from junior guard Jared Rehmel, who scored the Bears' first seven points of the game. Sophomore forward Chris Henson came off the bench and scored six consecutive points in the second half and finished with eight. Junior forward Tadre Sheppard also came off the bench and had back-to-back dunks in the second half and finished with 6 points and 6 rebounds. The Bears outrebounded the Jayhawks 38-36 and held All-American center Cole Aldrich to 7 points and 5 rebounds.
"We came in with some enthusiasm, we were excited about competing here,' said Chappell. "We competed hard and at times we got some stops defensively. I thought we won some possessions against a very, very good team. We didn't score the ball well enough or make enough shots, but we competed hard.
"They made 11 of 19 from the three. We had hoped to take away the inside game and make them make some shots, and as any great team does, they proved that they have many different weapons and many different directions they can go.'
The Bears scored first on a driving shot by Rehmel, but then saw the Jayhawks go on a 31-3 run over the next 15 minutes to take a 31-5 lead.
Rehmel scored UCA's first seven points, including a three-pointer and another driving layup. The Bears did finally find the range in the final two minutes, outscoring the Jayhawks 8-3 down the stretch. Junior guard Imad Qahwash hit a pair of free throws, junior center Carlos Dos Santos made a layup and senior guard Mike Pouncy scored the final four points with two free throws and a rebound basket at the buzzer to make it 37-15.
UCA shot just 19.2 percent in the first half (5 of 26) but did outrebound Kansas 21-19. The Jayhawks shot 46.7 percent (14 of 30) with eight different players scoring.
The Jayhawks, coming off a closer-than-expected 57-55 win over Memphis on Tuesday night, pushed their lead to as much as 52 points in the second half as they shot 67.9 percent overall and 87.5 percent (7 of 8) from three-point range after halftime.
"Every time we made a mistake, they seemed to hit a three on us,' said Chappell. "Or you miss a block out, they get a tip dunk. Sometimes we play a team where you miss an assignment, they still miss the shot. But teams like this, at this level, they obviously make you pay every time.'
Still, Chappell said the experience was worth the lopsided final margin.
"In the end, we'll talk about this for the great experience it was, ' he said. "To come in here and play against a big-time team, not everyone gets to do that. I told our guys after the game , the re are a lot of older men paying $15,000 to go to fantasy cambit of what this was. To come in here and play in this arena, with the crowd like it was, it was nice. I think we will definitely take some positives away from it.'
UCA hosts Western Illinois back home at the Farris Center on Saturday.
