“I told ’em, ‘We should win,”’ said Williams, whose Jayhawks returned to action for the first time since winning last week’s Coaches Vs. Cancer Classic in New York.

“But I also said I hope we’d try to push ourselves. I don’t think we did that. We struggled through one tonight.”

Suffering a New York hangover, or “fat and happy” syndrome following victories over UCLA and St. John’s, the Jayhawks led North Dakota by just 13 points at halftime before claiming a comfy 92-61 victory.

“I think it was a pretty important factor in the way we played early coming off such an emotional high in New York. Big games, national TV attention,” Williams said. “Human nature regardless of what the coach says you will think it’s going to be an easy one.”

Richard Gwin/Journal-World Photo

Especially when billed as NCAA Div. I versus Div. II.

Curtis Munlin looked as good as any Div. I guard, hitting five three-pointers in the first half as Dakota trailed just 44-31 at halftime. Overall, the Sioux hit 9 of 34 three-pointers to KU’s 3 of 6.

“I don’t think we were mentally into it, but give credit to the way North Dakota played,” Williams said. “In a game like that, they will not beat us inside. We are bigger, so they will try to do something else. They shot a lot of threes.”

The good news for KU is North Dakota missed 25 of its 34 three-point tries. Jeff Brandt made just 3 of 17. Meanwhile, the Jayhawks, who hit 56.3 percent of their shots to the Sioux’s 31.6, grabbed most of the rebounds, skying for 56 to North Dakota’s 30.

KU’s Kenny Gregory and Nick Collison each hit 8 of 11 shots, Gregory scoring 19 and Collison 16. Drew Gooden and Eric Chenowith had 16 and 14 points, respectively, as KU ruled down low.

“It’d be silly for us to come down and shoot very many threes because we can throw the basketball inside,” Williams said. “The thing that disappointed me early is Eric, Nick and Drew were content to shoot jump shots themselves.

“We’ve got to throw it inside and take the ball to the basket more.”

The Jayhawks did get the message in the second half. KU went on a 22-3 surge that upped a 66-50 lead (at 9:42) to an insurmountable 88-52 margin at 2:35.

Seven Jayhawks scored in that run, including reserve forward Jeff Carey, who hit for five points.

“I like the fact we kept trying to get it inside,” said Williams, who was especially pleased junior guard Jeff Boschee had four assists in 31 minutes, attempting no threes while playing smart basketball against his in-state school.

“I really like the fact Jeff Boschee at halftime has four assists and zero turnovers. He was not looking for it (shot). He had two (open looks) the second half and made both.”

“Jeff was great. He was not going crazy out there trying to shoot wild shots. He knew we had a size advantage and was working it in there,” noted Collison, who had 12 points on 6-of-8 shooting the first half alone.

As far as KU’s overall performance, Collison said it’s good to finally play a home game after the New York experience.

“Those were the bright lights,” Collison said. “The games were on TV. We were excited about winning a tournament. It might have something to do with how we played early. Still we had a good game plan coach preached we had an advantage inside and we were able to enough nice things to win.

“We know we’ve got a lot of work to do before we’re a good team.”

The Jayhawks, 3-0, will meet Boise State at 7:05 p.m. Monday at Allen Fieldhouse.