In its season opener against Vermont, Kansas University’s men’s basketball team had to come from behind to defeat the Catamounts, 68-61.
The Jayhawks had no such problems Tuesday against Saint Joseph’s, trouncing the Hawks, 91-51, at Allen Fieldhouse. The loss was the largest Saint Joe’s has suffered under head coach Phil Martelli.
Kansas (2-0) jumped out to a 22-10 lead early, and extended that advantage to 31 points, 50-19, at halftime. The Jayhawks were 19-of-31 shooting from the field in the first half, including 5-of-5 shooting from three-point range. Saint Joe’s, on the other hand, missed all nine of its three-point attempts before intermission.
“We ran well, and we defended well. We did everything pretty well,” KU head coach Bill Self said about the first half.
The Hawks (0-1) started the second half with a 14-4 run, but the Jayhawks answered with 25-6 spurt of its own, assuring the victory.
In a game that saw plenty of playing time for KU’s reserves, every Jayhawk who saw time on the court scored, except for Moulaye Niang and Nick Bahe.
“Looking at our schedule, I didn’t know when were going to have a game where we could play the young guys so many minutes,” Self said.
Wayne Simien led KU with 20 points and 13 rebounds – 14 points and 11 boards in the first half. Aaron Miles added 11 points, four assists, three rebounds, and three steals, and Michael Lee had 13 points, four steals and two assists.
“When we were struggling in the second half, he came in and sparked us,” Self said of Lee.
Four of KU’s freshmen took advantage of the extra playing time to shine. Darnell Jackson and C.J. Giles scored eight points each for KU. Giles added five rebounds and three blocks, and Jackson had three boards. Russell Robinson had 10 points, five assists and three rebounds, Sasha Kaun added four points, six rebounds and three blocks.
“They produced, and they did well, too,” Self said of the freshmen.
Alex Galindo, who missed a lot of practice time before the season with a groin injury, scored four points on 2-of-6 shooting.
J.R. Giddens added five points, four assists and three boards, and Christian Moody and Keith Langford each scored four points.
Dwayne Jones had 11 points and 14 rebounds for Saint Joe’s. Dwayne Lee added 12 points – all in the second half – and Chet Stachitas had 11 points.
Abdulai Jalloh and Pat Calathes added six points each, John Bryant scored three points, and Artur Surov had two points.
Kansas finished 35-of-56 shooting from the field, including 6-of-11 from three-point range, and 15-of-24 from the charity stripe.
Saint Joseph’s was 16-of-54 shooting from the field, including 2-of-18 from long distance, and 17-of-29 shooting from the free throw line.
All stats are unofficial.
