Xavier Henry wasted no time making his way into the national spotlight. He scored 27 points, leading the Jayhawks to a 101-65 victory against Hofstra Friday night.

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Kansas Basketball vs. Hofstra

Kansas basketball opened its 2009-10 regular season on Friday, Nov. 13 with a game against Hofstra University. Freshman guard Xavier Henry led the team with 27 points as the Jayhawks defeated Hofstra 101-65.

Henry scored eight points in the first five minutes of the game and had 11 straight for the beginning of the second half. Showing his efficiency, he made eight of his 12 shots and went 5-of-8 in three-point shooting. Henry was wide open for many of his jump shots, noting Hofstra’s defense as the reason.

“The zone is designed for shooters,” he said. “When they play zone, I know I’m going to be open.”

In the two exhibition games, freshmen Elijah Johnson and Thomas Robinson had their breakout performances while Henry showed small flashes. Kansas coach Bill Self said until this game, Henry had been tentative about his role on the team.

“I’m happy for him because he’s a natural scorer and he’s been thinking instead of playing,” Self said. “Tonight, I think he played instead of thought.”

Once again, senior guard Sherron Collins and junior center Cole Aldrich failed to attract as much attention. Collins put in a somewhat quiet 23 points with four three-pointers and three assists. Regardless of the lack of attention, Collins said Henry’s performance was devastating to opposing defenses.

“I’m pleased with him,” he said. “This showed everybody in the country that me and Cole won’t score all the time so now you have to pay more attention to people around us.”

Collins said that he wasn’t bent on taking over the game offensively, and that there were other ways to dominate a game without scoring.

“We have enough weapons this year where I don’t have to hunch down and force things like I did last year,” he said. “I’m just trying to give other guys open shots.”

Aldrich was a monster on the boards, with eight rebounds and four blocks. He was the only other Jayhawk in double figures with 11 points. However, he only took five shots while the Jayhawks went 11-of-27 from three-point range. That was the doing of Hofstra’s zone defense, Self said.

“We took 27 threes, which is way too many threes,” Self said. “We’re not a big three-point shooting team and we haven’t ever been since I’ve been here. But they played zone. I think what they did dictated that as much as anything else.”

After trailing 2-0 to start the game, Henry hit a three and the Jayhawks didn’t look back, leading the rest of the way.

Hofstra guard Charles Jenkins led his team with 23 points, despite what Self called a great defensive effort by sophomore guard Tyshawn Taylor.

“I though Tyshawn was really good defensively,” he said. “The big guys didn’t help him much on the ball and that’s why Jenkins got a lot of points. Jenkins is good. He is strong and gets to the paint.”

Henry’s 27 points set a record for a freshman in his first game, though he said that did not mean as much to him as winning. He said he was impressed with the college atmosphere, the fans and how they cheered at just about everything Kansas did.

“That’s the great thing about college basketball,” he said, “is that everybody is on your side when you’re at home and it gets so loud so you get pumped up for it.”

Henry said he expected this kind of performance coming from the top-ranked team in the nation.

“We knew this was the one that actually counted,” he said. “So we just came out and had to make sure everybody knew we were No. 1.”

Follow Corey Thibodeaux at twitter.com/c_thibodeaux.

— Edited by Amanda Thompson