Hawking Points: Kansas Rolls to 41st Straight Senior Night Victory
The Kansas Jayhawks hasn’t lost the final home game of the year since 1983 and it didn’t happen tonight as the Jayhawks cruised to a 90-68 victory.
The Fieldhouse hit 126.2 decibels before tip and the atmosphere was electric from start to finish.
Key Plays
Kevin McCullar and Hunter Dickinson missed two easy looks and a missed travel on the other end led to a foul and a quick 3-0 K-State lead. Then McCullar drove and drew an and-one to tie it. Michael Jankovich tried to draw a charge and was called for a block which caused the KU bench (and arena) to erupt. A no call on a Jank there and then aArthur Kaluma and-one led to a 7-3 KSU lead. Kansas missed several layups and Kaluma hit a three to take a 10-5 lead into the first media timeout.
Four straight Johnny Furphy free throws got Kansas back within one. A near shot-clock violation led to Dajuan Harris finding KJ Adams for two. Then Dickinson stole the ball and put back his own miss for an 8-0 Kansas run. McCullar would finish in transition before a pair of KSU free throws stopped the run.
McCullar drained the first three of the game for Kansas to put the Jayhawks up five. K-State missed a three on the other end and Furphy for Adams for a monster slam. The Wildcats trimmed KU’s lead to two at the under-eight but free throws and a Furphy drive put Kansas back up eight two minutes later. Missed layups kept KU for expanding the lead further.
Harris got a rest with 3:40 to play in the half and KU up six. Elmarko Jackson was great on both ends and Dickinson blocked KSU’s final shot to take a 41-33 lead.
Kansas scored the first six points of the half while it took Kansas State 3:53 seconds to score its first point on an Arthur Kaluma free throw. McCullar continued his hot shooting, bailing a three to put Kansas up 50-36. Timberlake hit his first three on the next possession. Adams schooled his defender off the dribble for a reverse layup and then Dickinson found a wide open Timberlake off a double team, who sunk his second.
Harris found Adams for an alley-oop and Dickinson went coast to coast to go up 22. The lead got to 24 on a Harris drive before KSU stopped the bleeding with a basket. The only negative of the half was McCullar looking like he banged his knee again with 5:30 left and coming out of the game.
Timberlake continued to go off, hitting his third and fourth threes of the game as KU led 81-53. The walk-ons came in the final few minutes and gave the crowd a similar show. Patrick Cassidy drove to the lane and scored on a goaltending and Jankovich drew a foul and sunk a free throw to give Kansas its 90th point.
Eye-Catching Stat Lines
Kansas only shot 40% from the field in the first half but scored 41 points thanks to sinking 16 of 18 free throws. The second half was better and the free throws continued to fall. KU ended hitting 28-31 from the line and behind McCullar and Timberlake, Kansas made 6-13 threes.
McCullar led the team with a game-high 19 points, followed close behind by Timberlake at 18 points.
But the biggest stat line of the night came from Dickinson who grabbed 20 rebounds, scored 15 points, and had five blocked shots. Adams also scored 16 points and five rebounds and Furphy scored eight.
Harris was again solid, scoring eight points and dishing out seven assists with only two turnovers.
Kansas outrebounded KSU 41-30 and only turned it over six times while turning K-State over 11 times.
Areas of Improvement
Kansas did not have its usual success from inside the paint. And when that happens, you have to either supplement with three or free throws. Kansas did it with free throws the whole game and got the threes going in the second half.
Other than that, there wasn’t a whole lot to complain about in this one. Multiple Wildcat threes were in the last three minutes when the game was completely out of reach.
Takeaways
That’s how you rebound from a rare home loss and snap a two-game losing streak. The offense got rolling, the defense was good, and Kansas took care of a team it was clearly better than.
