Down 13-6 after seven and a half minutes, Coach Roy Williams needed to send a message to his flat Jayhawks. For the second time this season, he benched all five starters. Brett Ballard, Jeff Carey, Todd Kappelman, Lewis Harrison and Chris Zerbe took the floor. Zerbe snagged a steal forced by Harrison, and on the other end Ballard nailed a three.
Kansas came back to take a six point lead of their own in a foul-laden first half. But the Wildcats kept fighting, and ended the half with a 6-0 run to cut the lead to a mere two points.
The second half was saw more of the same back and forth action. Kansas State tied the game right off, then let Kansas work up an eleve point lead over the next seven minutes. The Wildcats never came closer than four points after that. The Jayhawks pulled away at the end, with a Kirk Hinrich three providing the clincher.
Drew Gooden, in his first game back from injury, scored a game-high 17 points and grabbed seven rebounds. Four other Jayhawks notched double figures: Nick Collison with 13, Kirk Hinrich with twelve, and Kenny Gregory and Jeff Boschee each with eleven.
On another front, KU’s women’s team defeated Texas A&M to win their final regular season game.
See tomorrow’s Lawrence Journal-World, and KUSports.com, for full coverage of tonight’s games.
