Kansas forward Angela Aycock was on a scoring rampage, pouring in 20 points in the first 25 minutes of the Jayhawks' NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament first-round confrontation with the Lady Lions at Rec Hall on Saturday.

Senior forward Jackie Donovan, the Lady Lion defensive specialist, was having a tough day on her 6-foot-2 assignment. Aycock was lighting up the scoreboard, well on her way to scoring 40 points, while Kansas led, 49-46. Then Carla Coleman checked into the game.

"She played (Aycock) up close and said, 'You're going to have to make some tough points or drive the lane,' " Coach Rene Portland said of the defensive effort by the 5-foot-8 redshirt junior guard. "I think she was really the person that shut down Angela in the second half."

Aycock was held to seven points in the remaining 15 minutes, finishing with 27. Coleman's defensive performance was overshadowed by the monster second-half Helen Holloway and Tina Nicholson had offensively as the Lady Lions won 85-68.

"I don't think many people know that I'm a good defender," Coleman said. Her 42 steals rank third on the team.

Normally, great defense isn't expected by someone who describes her personality as laid back. Coleman likes to watch what's going on before contributing her two-cents worth. But this personality trait may help her as a reserve off the bench.

"I think it helps me as far as knowing what my teammates need at that particular time," she said. "But as far as studying the game, I spent a whole year on the sidelines watching the game."

It was Thanksgiving Day 1992 when Carla Coleman hit rock bottom. She had suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee during a pickup basketball game in June, ending her upcoming season and possibly her career.

"I just sat in the corner and cried because I didn't know what to be thankful for," Coleman recalled. "At times, it was that bad that I just wanted to give up. I didn't want to do anything. I just was really in a lot of self-pity.

"That was the most distraught I ever was in my entire life. The fact that a lot of people were saying that I would never be the same, that I would never get my quickness back, I think that made me work a lot harder."

The hard work has paid off. Coleman has actually improved through rehabilitation, adding range to her outside shot and taking her ballhandling to another level, Portland said.

"She brings afterburners to this team. She's ultraquick," Portland said of Coleman. "A year off did a whole lot for her, even though it was frustrating for her not to play a whole year."

"With this year's team, you never know what to expect," Coleman said of the difference between the No. 2 Lady Lions (26-2) and their predecessors. "I think that's the one thing Rene talks about -- the unexpected."

With Coleman, you can expect the unexpected. Especially when she's on a fastbreak and there's a layup to be made. She has turned the conventional layup into an alternative art form with twisting, turning layups that usually cause her to get fouled and somehow always make their way into the basket.

"I saw you shoot that one shot, but I really don't know what part of your body it came from," Portland once said to Coleman after one of her acrobatic layups this year.

It came from her heart. And Coleman has a lot more where that came from.