LAWRENCE, Kan. - Sophomore Sarah Miller had a career high for Western Illinois, scoring 20 points in the 63-75 loss to Kansas at historic Allen Fieldhouse.

Miller used an 8-of-11 free throw mark to propel her to 20 points, a new career high that replaces her 15 points twice during her two-year career. The Mundelein, Ill. native, added six shots for her final tally. Miller also tallied five rebounds, two assists, and three steals.

The first half was a good one for Western, despite finding themselves down by two after 20 minutes. The Westerwinds came out strong in the first four minutes going up 9-6. Then around the 12 minute mark Western went on a 9-2 run to go up by as many as six points. Western was spurred on by tough defense forcing the Jayhawks to turn the ball over several 10 times in the first half.

Western also used strong rebounding, including five offensive rebounds, compared to Kansas' four. Kansas would crawl back in the game from the eight minutes mark recording a 18-10 run to take the lead with 1:05 remaining in the first half.

The Jayhawks came out strong in the second half going on a 4-0 run in the first two minutes and never looked back as they pulled out to lead the game by as many as 15. Western tried to come back half-way through the period going on a 6-0 run over a one minute span that included two steals by senior DeeDee Murphy and Miller.

Western (1-5) will return home for one game against Ohio, Monday, December 4. The game will tip-off at 6 p.m. in Western Hall.

Notes: Sophomore Amanda Walker was the only other Western player in double-digits (10 points) ... Western has now lost four-straight games for the first time since the 2001-02 season ... The last time was Jan. 21, 2002-Feb. 2, 2002.

Quotes
Western Illinois Head Coach Leslie Crane
On the game:
"I felt like we lost our composure a little bit in the second half. I called a timeout to get them to settle down because we lost our poise out there. We would foul and turn the ball over, but we were able to get it (the deficit) back. We are still making some little mistakes that are costing us. Our ball containment tonight was not very good.
Our ball rotation was lacking a little bit. I saw a lot of positives tonight, especially in the first half. Our bench really came in ready to play. I felt very comfortable with our bench. We had 16 points off our bench, so that was good. We are getting better every time we walk out onto the floor. We are doing something better, but there are some of the same things that our costing us. Our rebounding can still improve, but it is not like we were not doing a decent job on the boards, but they had 13 second chance points tonight and that was the difference in the ball game. The rebounding, ball containment, and bench play are all things that we need to continue to work on before we get into conference play."

Sophomore Guard Sarah Miller
On the game:
"We came out well in the first half, but we struggled to keep it up for the full 40 minutes. There were times in the second half that we let up and that basically sums up the game. We got out-rebounded in the second half and we gave them too many second chance points. We need to rebound better and we turned it over to many times in the second half."

On playing a difficult road non-conference schedule:
"We set-up our schedule like this on purpose, against this kind of competition so that we will be ready for conference play. But we also schedule these teams because we know we can play with them. We know we can beat some of these teams, we just did not show it tonight."

Kansas Head Coach Bonnie Henrickson
On KU's offense:
"I thought we made some shots, and the ones we didn't were not very good shots. I thought we were balanced, and that was one of our keys before the game -- to be ready to take a shot. You should be able to make a shot if you are ready. That is progress for us, and now we just need to put both ends of the court together."

On KU's defense:
"I don't understand it. We gave up middle-penetration 11 times in the first half, and our goal is three for an entire game. We just don't have a purpose defensively. We sent (Western Illinois) to the free-throw line 32 times, and we said that we couldn't do that. We have really made an emphasis on fouling in practice. We just don't respect how we need to be better with our hands and play position defense. We will get it right and we will get it better. I feel certain that we will."

On the flow of the game:
"Both teams were penetrating and both teams were putting the ball on the floor. (Western Illinois) had been to the line 32 times (in a previous game). We went 16-for-28 (from the free-throw line). When we go 16-for-28, we are not focused. For whatever reason, I don't know why that happened. We need to address that, because we are about to hit a stretch where it won't be pretty if that is how we show up."

Kansas Junior forward Jamie Boyd
On the second half:
"We came out really flat in the first 20 minutes. In the second half we tried to focus on coming out with energy, putting more intensity into our defense and our offense."