It might not be such a hot idea for Mario Chalmers to make the outside jumper look so easy. Opponents might start to catch on to one of his top skills.
Heck, they probably will anyway. Towson tried to quell it Sunday night and didn’t fare so well.
The zone defense the Tigers threw at Kansas University, for all intents and purposes, was supposed to eliminate open looks outside, such as the ones the sophomore guard benefitted so much from in the first half of the Jayhawks’ 87-61 victory in Allen Fieldhouse.
“The zone was kind of tough just because we wanted to kind of get into a running game,” said Chalmers, whose 15 points included a trio of three-pointers. “We just had to slow it down and work through our offense and try to find open looks in the zone.”
With Towson within one point of the Jayhawks at 18-17 midway through the first half, Chalmers and freshman guard Sherron Collins found those holes.
And they made the most of them.
Chalmers and Collins were responsible for five of the Jayhawks’ six first-half three-pointers, which quickly made a tight contest a laugher by halftime.
“I thought they were really big,” KU coach Bill Self said, “because we ran bad offense.”
KU didn’t hit a single trey in the second half, but the threat remained present, and in turn it opened up the post for the Jayhawks’ big men. One shining example of that was sophomore forward Julian Wright, who scored 11 of his 12 points in the second half.
“Basically, (Mario is) the key as far as our perimeter shooting,” Wright said. “It helps us spread our offense out as well in terms of everyone gets their confidence knowing that a lot of guys are going to focus on him, so we move the ball around and be patient, and everyone gets a lot of good shots, good looks.”
The good looks spread, too, with seven Jayhawks scoring at least six points and four ending up in double figures.
“It’s very important because defense wins championships,” Chalmers said. “But scoring wins games.”