Last year, Kansas lost its very first game to Ball State at the Maui Invitational. They nearly lost to Holy Cross in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Put the two together, and that might have spelled trouble for Kansas. The Crusaders began each half hot, but grew stone-cold in each frame. An 18-point halftime lead blossomed to 29 at one point, and was only trimmed to 24 when the Kansas deep bench played out the final minute.
In just over five minutes of the second half, Collison had nine of Kansas’ 11 points. He nearly single-handedly held off a revived Crusader team. The beginning of each half was marked by an aggressive Holy Cross effort, but the guts of each half saw Kansas take the game back just as strongly. Holy Cross got as close as 10 points, but two of their starters fouled out within seconds of each other just shy of the 14 minute mark.
Kansas is looking to get back to the Final Four for the second year in a row. Check out the Jayhawks’ Final Four History to see the tradition.
The second half began at the same pace that marked the first. Nearly four minutes into the final frame, and Kansas could only point to five Nick Collison foul shots for their offensive production. The Crusaders, however, hit several shots to cut KU’s lead to ten points, but a Keith Langford roll put KU up by 12 points. Holy Cross seemed to have woken up from their woeful first-half shooting, when they hit only 31 percent of their shots after a solid start.
A few minutes later, and Jave Meade and Patrick Whearty – both starters – had fouled out. The Crusaders never seemed to recover. A third Crusader fouled out
After taking the lead around the nine-minute mark of the first half, Holy Cross could only manage four more points for the rest of the first half. In the meantime, Kansas built up a seemingly insurmountable double-digit lead. What began as a close game is looking more like a 1-0 start for the Jayhawks.
Holy Cross early on proved as pesky as they were last year in the NCAA Tournament, holding a lead with nine minutes to play in the first half. After Wayne Simien regained the lead for Kansas, Nick Collison found his shot finally, jamming one home to extend the lead for Kansas a three point lead with under eight mintues left on the clock.
The Crusaders took the lead at the 12:48 mark on back-to-back bombs. Moulaye Niang’s first regular-season basket regained the lead for KU – only to see the Crusaders take it right back.
Nick Collison led all scoring with 20 points and eight rebounds. Wayne Simien turned in a double-double: 13 points and 11 boards. Keith Langford added 15 points and four assists, Kirk Hinrich scored 13 points and Aaron Miles had six points, five rebounds and four assists.
Rounding out the scoring for KU, Bryant Nash scored eight (matching a career high), and Michael Lee, Jeff Graves and Moulaye Niang all scored two.
As a team, Kansas shot 52.8 percent from the field, but hit only 22 of 37 free throws. KU held Holy Cross to just 34.6 percent shooting. The Crusaders hit 14 of their 21 foul shots, and made just seven of their 21 shots from beyond the arc.
Kansas will face UNC Greensboro, who defeated Wagner earlier today, 84-65. Tip off is Friday at 6 p.m. in Allen Fieldhouse.
Watch the replay tonight on Sunflower Cable channel 6 at 10:30 p.m.
For full coverage of today’s game, read tomorrow’s Lawrence Journal-World, and see KUSports.com.
