STARKVILLE, Miss. — Kaylee Jensen’s size was going to be a problem down low for Syracuse.

She knew it. Quentin Hillsman knew it.

“If you’re in a situation when you’re outmanned at certain positions — by outmanned I mean outsized — it’s tough to combat that,” Hillsman said.

Still, Syracuse couldn’t really do anything to stop her. The 6-foot-4-inch Jensen bullied her way to 19 points, 12 rebounds (seven offensive) and a win for No. 9 Oklahoma State (21-10, 11-7 Big 12) over No. 8 Syracuse (22-9, 10-6 Atlantic Coast), 84-57, in the Round of 64 of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday in Humphrey Coliseum.

Syracuse’s frontcourt rotation consists of three players: 6-foot-4 freshman Amaya Finklea-Guity, 6-foot-2 freshman Digna Strautmane and 5-foot-8 junior college transfer Raven Fox. It’s a thin rotation, and one that never really stood a chance against Jensen.

“Our post players are freshmen,” point guard Tiana Mangakahia said. “They’re going up against a post player that’s a senior and she’s one of the best post players in the country.”

All season, Jensen has been a double-double machine. She entered Saturday’s game with 18, eighth in the country, and she would leave the floor with one more after 40 minutes of basketball.

Jensen opened her scoring with a wrinkle, drawing Finklea-Guity to the right elbow before turning and hitting a smooth turnaround jumper.

That shot brought Jensen occasional success, but she really thrived on getting beneath the basket and imposing her will. With 5:36 left in the first quarter, Jensen gathered a Loryn Goodwin miss. Through a thicket of arms, she took the ball down and fumbled. Even with Finklea-Guity and Strautmane swatting away, Jensen gathered and went up strong, getting the basket and the foul.

After a seemingly quiet first half — Jensen still scored 11 and grabbed six boards — Jensen really started to flex some muscle down low. It didn’t matter if Fox, Finklea-Guity or Strautmane was guarding her, she always seemed to muscle the ball up for a basket or a foul, occasionally both.

“I think the first half I wasn’t establishing my post-up low enough and so coach kind of got on my back about that,” Jensen said. “So I think establishing my post positioning, trying to get the ball really helped my positioning on the offensive rebounds.”

That positioning was only half the battle. The Cowgirls had to find a way to get her the ball.

To feed Jensen, OSU reversed the ball relentlessly, hoping to morph SU’s 2-3 zone and create an opening to get the ball down low.

When that didn’t work, the Cowgirls schemed to move the weak side help away from the paint and get Jensen chances to back down and move Finklea-Guity.

“We fronted her and they lobbed the ball over the top,” Hillsman said. “The problem is when you’re fronting a player that big and your weak side help is 5-foot-8, it’s tough. Size was a factor.”

After the game is when Hillsman admitted SU couldn’t fully match up with Jensen and OSU’s size. And “you can have a lot of scheme” to slow a player like that down, he said.

But with the limited personnel and experience, it almost seemed like Jensen was getting her points no matter what. She wasn’t going to be denied.

“It’s a game in the Tournament,” she said. “Just gotta go for it all.”

Published on March 17, 2018 at 9:25 pm

Contact Andrew: aegraham@syr.edu | @A_E_Graham