New York ? Wall Street might want to start selling options in a hot new stock.
“That was ‘bucket trading’ out there tonight,” Kansas forward Drew Gooden said after scoring 18 points in the Jayhawks’ 99-98 first-round Coaches Vs. Cancer victory over UCLA Thursday to kick off the college basketball season.
Yes, the teams traded baskets a lot at Madison Square Garden in a game that featured what KU’s Kenny Gregory termed “terrible” defense.
But some lax ‘D’ also made for entertaining theater as the Jayhawks and Bruins scored points and lots of ’em at a furious pace.
“Actually it was like a rec-league game, or playground game,” Gregory said after scoring 24 points on 11-of-18 shooting. He played 37 minutes all 20 the final half as KU made do without injured swingman Luke Axtell, back home with a sprained ankle.
“It’s pretty exciting to play the first college game of the season. I don’t think we made too much of a statement, but we won the game and showed some toughness too,” Gregory added.
The Jayhawks move into tonight’s final against St. John’s, which advanced Thursday with a 62-61 victory over Kentucky. Tipoff should be about 8 p.m., Lawrence time, after a 5:30 p.m. battle between Kentucky and UCLA.
KU, which hit 54.7 percent of its shots, looked unstoppable on offense in the first half Thursday. In fact, Kansas made seven of its first eight shots to lead 16-2 and 11 of 13 shots to roll to a 24-8 margin with 12:41 left.
The Jayhawks were getting lots of easy layups, making sharp cuts and backdoor passes with Gregory tallying eight points early.
“The middle of their zone was wide open,” Gregory said. “There were some big holes in their zone.”
KU’s 16-point lead did take a hit as UCLA cut the deficit to 31-25 after a 17-7 run, which included five points from Kansas City native Earl Watson, who tallied 21 points with eight assists.
Gregory had 15 points the first half, Kirk Hinrich 13 and Nick Collison 11 off the bench as KU led 57-51 at halftime.
The second half was a matter of the foul-plagued Jayhawks holding off the Bruins, who hit seven of nine threes after making six of 15 the first half.
“I don’t like the way we played at points of the second half with our intelligence,” KU coach Roy Williams said. “We’ve got to credit UCLA and do a better job on the defensive end of the floor.
“We made some plays and had willingness to make the plays. Some of our biggest plays were offensive rebounds (KU had 41 boards to UCLA’s 29).”
UCLA started quickly the second half and cut the gap to 58-56 off a Billy Knight three at 18:01. But KU quickly regained an 11-point lead at 70-59, an impressive 12-3 spurt that started when Hinrich (career-high 21 points) hit Gooden for a layup and Gregory followed with a offensive rebound and basket.
KU led 81-70 at 9:58, then went into a funk, missing four of five shots, plus three missed free throws all by Gregory.
UCLA cut the deficit to 83-79 and then tied the game at 87 on two T.J. Cummings free throws at 3:56.
Eric Chenowith, KU center
Eric Chenowith returned to the game at that point he went to the bench with his fourth foul at 13:39, putting back a Gooden miss for an 89-87 KU lead at 3:42.
Gooden then missed a hook, but rebounded and scored as KU led, 91-87, at
2:38.
“I kept my head in the game while I was sitting out,” said Chenowith, who had 12 points and nine boards. “If the team needs a bucket, I’ll try to get it.”
Cummings he had 24 points in his college debut scored over Gooden to cut the gap to two, but Gooden then grabbed an offensive rebound and hit a 6-footer and KU led, 93-89, at 1:31.
Gooden had a team-high 10 boards.
“The way we started out of the blocks I thought it’d be a blowout,” Gooden said. “We were killing ’em. We stuck with it and grabbed some rebounds and showed we wanted it.”
Jason Kapono (22 points) drained a three at :51 to cut the gap to one at 93-92.
Kansas | 57 | 42 | 99 |
UCLA | 51 | 47 | 98 |
Chenowith fouled out with :30 left, stepping in front of UCLAs Matt Barnes to grab an inside feed. Barnes actually could have given the Bruins the lead but bricked both free throws.
“I got three offensive fouls from posting up strong,” Chenowith said. “If it gets to the point we have to adjust (to new emphasis on less physical play inside) we’ll adjust.”
KU’s Hinrich calmly drained two free throws at :23.3 and Boschee hit a pair of free throws at :10.6, right after a Barnes basket and missed charity.Boschee hit two more free throws following a Cummings dunk with 3.2 ticks left.
Hinrich and Boschee may have saved the day at the line.
“Kirk and Jeff stepped up and made their free throws which was big for us,” Williams said. “You do that in that situation, it makes a youngster feel good.”
No big deal, said Boschee, who scored 10 points with five assists. He finished with four fouls as did Gooden. Gregory, Hinrich, plus Collison, who had 12 points and three boards.
“I was kind of looking forward to doing something in that area. I do like those chances,” Boschee said of free throws late in games.
It wasn’t perfect, but for KU not a bad beginning.
“We’ve got to play a lot better defensively tomorrow,” Williams said.
Yep, the 98 points was the most KU has allowed in a game since 1990, when the Jayhawks fell at Oklahoma, 100-78.
MORE:www.kusports.com
Three-point goals: 13-24 (Kapono 6-9, Watson 3-6, Knight 2-3, Young 2-4, Barnes 0-1, Bailey 0-1). Assists: 19 (Watson 8, Kapono 6, Bailey 2, Barnes, Gadzuric, Young). Turnovers: 14 (Kapono 4, Watson 3, Cummings 3, Barnes 2, Knight, Bailey). Blocked shots: 2 (Cummings 2). Steals: 8 (Young 3, Kapono 2, Barnes, Gadzuric, Watson). |
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Three-point goals: 7-16 (Hinrich 3-4, Boschee 2-4, Gregory 2-6, Kinsey 0-1, Nash 0-1). Assists: 20 (Boschee 5, Gooden 4, Gregory 3, Hinrich 3, Kinsey 3, Chenowith, Collison). Turnovers: 15 (Gooden 3, Chenowith 3, Gregory 2, Hinrich 2, Collison 2, Boschee, Kinsey, Nash). Blocked shots: 1 (Chenowith). Steals: 6 (Collison 3, Gooden, Chenowith, Boschee). |