PAGE 4B
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2012
THE UNIVERS
Kansas 51 | 30----81 Oklahoma State 24 | 42----66
IAYHAWK STAT LEADERS
Points
KANSAS 81, OKL
ROBINSON
24
Rebounds
WITHEY
Assists
20
Taylor
faylo 6
KANSAS
Player Pts FG-FGA Rebs A TO's
Tyshawn Taylor 12 5-14 2 6 3
Elijah Johnson 11 4-9 4 5 4
Travis Releford 10 5-6 4 2 1
Thomas Robinson 24 8-14 14 2 3
Jeff Withey 18 6-13 20 1 1
Conner Teahan 0 0-3 1 1 1
Kevin Young 4 2-3 3 1 1
Totals 81 30-62 50 18 14
OPPONENT
Player Pts FG-FGA Rebs A TO's Le'Bryan Nash 11 2-10 6 3 3 Michael Cobbins 4 2-6 4 0 0 Brian Williams 11 2-6 2 0 0 Keiton Page 19 5-16 3 2 2 Markel Brown 21 7-15 3 2 1 Cezar Guerrero 0 0-2 0 0 0 Totals 66 18-55 21 7 6
GAME TO REMEMBER
After he was held scoreless at Missouri, Withey needed an encore to follow Wednesday's 25-point outburst at Baylor. With 18 points, seven blocks and a career-high 20 rebounds, Withey just that and proved Wednesday wasn't a fluke. Now he's got a rowdy Bramlage Coliseum as his venue to triumph again.
Jeff Withev. iunior center
Withey
Connor Teahan, senior guard
GAME TO FORGET
Teahan missed all three of his three-point shots and committed four fouls. He played just 14 minutes, despite averaging 19.5 minutes per game in the conference schedule. This could signal that he may not be such a focal point off the bench in upcoming games like he has been.
QUOTE OF THE GAME
Teahan
"He fully understands he's playing with the best player in America. That's good for Kansas, but bad for us."
Oklahoma State coach Travis Ford on Withey understanding the skills of Robinson
Ford
The Jayhawks outscored the Cowboys by 34 down low
KEY STATS
Kansas committed this number of turnovers in the second half.
29
Kansas grabbed 29 more rebounds than Oklahoma State, winning the battle of the boards 50-21.
Kansas held Oklahoma State's bench to zero points for the game.
0
NOTES
- Kansas City Chiefs coach Romeo Crennel sat court-side next to Kansas football coach Charlie Weis.
- Kansas has now scored 50 or more points in a half on five occasions this season.
- Jeff Withey recorded his fifth double-double of the season with 18 points and 20 rebounds.
- Withey is now 17th all-time on the Kansas blocked shots list. He passed Paul Pierce (98) and Markieff Morris (103) on Saturday.
- Thomas Robinson and Jeff Withey combined for 34 rebounds, the most by a Kansas duo since Nick Collison and Jeff Graves combined for 37 in the 2003 National Championship game against Syracuse.
MEN'S BASKET
Kansas struggles with pressure
KORY CARPENTER kcarpenter@kansan.com
Oklahoma State coach Travis Ford said his team was "stuck in the mud" in the first half of Saturday's contest with Kansas, a game in which the Jayhawks eventually won, 81-66. The final score could have been much different, however. The Jayhawks ended the opening half on an 11-2 run and took a commanding 51-24 lead to the locker room. Ford was determined to have a more positive second half.
"I said 'hey, we're not going to hold anything back this second half," Ford said after the loss. "Were going to be different than we were in the first in half in all aspects: mentality, approach, a lot of things."
The Cowboys did just that, throwing a full-court press at the Jayhawks to start the second half.
Sticking with his 'change everything' mentality, Ford also called for a zone defense for most of the second half, which caused problems for the Kansas offense.
"It wasn't a traditional zone," Senior guard Tyshawn Taylor said. "We were kind of just standing still and weren't getting the ball moving fluidly and that ended up causing a couple turnovers and them getting out on breaks."
Kansas committed 11 turnovers in the second half, a far cry from the three they committed in the opening half.
The once 29-point lead was cut to
15 with just under 10 minutes to play and eventually got down to 12 at the 6:46 mark.
"It was half real bad and half real good," Kansas coach Bill Self said. "As good as we were in the first half we were just about that bad in the second half"
Taylor and junior guard Elijah Johnson combined for 17 points and 10 assists in the first half, but had just six points and one assist in the second half on 2-for-12 shooting.
"I said "I'm really starting to enjoy watching you guys play," Self said. "I told them that and I knew it was a bad mistake as soon as I said it and
Self credited Ford for the adjustments and kicked himself for his halftime speech.
they gave me an opportunity to correct myself at the end of the game.
Self added that his team's lack o depth lends itself to stretches of ba play because when one or two player are struggling, it's not always possible to replace them both immediately, luxury he's had with previous teams.
He also said the final 20 minute against the Cowboys could be teaching moment down the road, "good experience" he called it.
"When we play right, we're pretty good," Self said. "But when we get off on our own and don't share it or lose the edge a little bit, we get so average."
— Edited by Pat Strathman
JESSICA JANASZ/KANSAN
Junior guard Elijah Johnson dribbles the ball during the first half of the game Saturday afternoon. The Jayhawks gained an 81-66 victory over the Cowboys and will play Kansas State next in Manhattan on Monday.
TRAVIS YOUNG/KANSAI
Kansas cheerleaders dress up in retro-style uniforms to celebrate 100th anniversary of the KU. The basketball players wore retro-style jerseys