Monday, February 8, 2010
It took the Jayhawks a while to figure it out, but the Cornhuskers came to play.
After letting Nebraska hang around for most of the game, Kansas finally pulled away in the second half in Saturday’s 75-64 victory.
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Kansas Basketball vs. Nebraska
Kansas took on conference foe Nebraska Saturday afternoon. Despite trailing by four at one point in the second half, the Jayhawks used a 28-5 run over a 10:35 second span to defeat the Cornhuskers 75-64, improving to 22-1 on the season, and a perfect 8-0 in Big 12 Conference play.
“I felt like they came out with a vengeance and they wanted to win,” sophomore forward Marcus Morris said. “We kind of came out on our heels.”
Leading most of the first half, the Jayhawks found themselves trailing 43-39 when the Cornhuskers came out of halftime with an 8-2 run.
From that point forward, senior guard Sherron Collins knew it was going to be a battle.
“We finally realized they came to fight,” he said. “This wasn’t going to be one of those games where we go up 20 and they just give up.”
Coach Bill Self called a timeout. Not by coincidence, Collins came right out with a three-pointer that sparked a 28-5 run the Jayhawks rode to victory. Collins said Self had great words of motivation in that huddle.
“Us getting down was something that we needed,” he said. “Him jumping on us was something we needed too.”
Self was not happy with the first half. But the defensive intensity in the second half was some of the best basketball he’s seen all year from his team.
“We turned it up, they didn’t get comfortable,” he said. “We played for 10 minutes or eight minutes about as well as we’ve played any other time in the second half.”
Collins, who finished with 17 points and six assists, said the key was just the energy factor.
“I think the crowd always has something to do with it,” Collins said. “I think the other 50 percent of that is we just woke up.”
Junior center Cole Aldrich spent only five minutes on the court in the first half after two early fouls. Freshman center Jeff Withey filled in admirably with four points, six rebounds and two blocks.
Freshman forward Thomas Robinson had trouble, getting three fouls in only six minutes, but did have a flashy dunk off a Marcus Morris miss. The second half was all Aldrich finishing with eight points, six rebounds and four blocks.
He hated what he saw from the bench.
“That may have been the dumbest we played in quite a while,” Aldrich said.
Turnovers and the rebound differential against a smaller team didn’t sit well for any of the big men. Morris, who finished with a team-high 20 points and 11 rebounds, said they fell into Nebraska’s game plan.
“They sped us up and we played into their hands,” he said.
The Jayhawks have a quick turnaround when they face the Texas Longhorns on Monday. If they throw out everything except the 28-5 run, Aldrich said his team should be fine.
“It’s going to take an effort like the way we played in that little stretch down in Austin on Monday to come out with a victory,” he said.
— Edite by Drew Anderson
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