C.J. Henry hasn’t played a real game of competitive basketball in four years. It was hard to tell Thursday night.

Coming in with just over two minutes to go in the first half, Henry scored eight points in his first action as a Jayhawk in a 94-44 victory against Central Arkansas. His last action in competitive basketball before Thursday came in 2005 when his high school basketball team lost in the playoffs.

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Kansas Basketball vs. Central Arkansas

Kansas faced off against Central Arkansas Thursday night in Allen Fieldhouse for a 94-44 victory against the Bears to move to a 3-0 record on the season

“I told coach I wanted to try my knee out tonight because it felt pretty good leading up to the game,” Henry said. “And when he told me he wanted me to come in, I was excited.”

Henry said his knee was at 80 percent before the game and that it felt pretty good after the game. Kansas coach Bill Self said Henry’s movement looked good and enjoyed seeing him on the court.

“It was good to see him get a couple down,” Self said. “He’s a good shooter.”

His teammates were happy to finally see him in action as well.

“I was very happy that he got out there,” junior guard Tyrel Reed said. “He’s been battling some injuries and all that good stuff but I know he’s capable.”

Henry said he thinks he can be part of the rotation later in the year but he needs to get minutes in with the first team.

“I’ve got to get used to playing with everybody,” he said. “That’s the main thing this team needs- chemistry.”

But everybody was in on the action. Four players scored in double figures- Sherron Collins, Xavier Henry, Marcus Morris and Tyrel Reed all led in scoring with 12 points. Three other players scored eight points each.

Kansas looks very balanced on nights like this but, Reed said, it’ll be Collins and Cole Aldrich doing the heavy lifting most night.

“We’ve got a lot of guys that are capable of scoring,” Reed said, “but I think we’ve got Cole and Sherron that are going to be up there scoring most of the points a lot of the time, Xavier as well.”

Right from the get-go, Kansas performed stifling defense and moved the ball. After the Bears scored the first field goal of the game, the Jayhawks went on a 31-3 run, including 23 straight at one point.

CARK was held to an appalling 19.2 percent shooting in the first half while trailing 37-15.

The Jayhawks went up big but let Bears almost double their halftime score in the second half alone.

“It’s easy to let up on games like this when you get up early and let other teams come back,” freshman forward Thomas Robinson said.

The home crowd got a scare early in the second half, reminiscent of Tuesday night against Memphis.

Sherron Collins went down writhing in pain favoring his left ankle. He limped off the court into the locker room. But just as he did against Memphis, he returned. This time, he only spent a few minutes in the locker room and seemed to have no ill effects afterward.

The ball movement was vastly improved and the younger players, Xavier Henry, Elijah Johnson and Thomas Robinson especially looked more comfortable than they did in St. Louis.

“We took better care of the basketball,” Self said. “That’s a positive after pitching it all over the building Tuesday.”

Follow Corey Thibodeaux at twitter.com/c_thibodeaux.

— Edited by Megan Morriss