Update #10: Final, KU wins 97-74
Jeremy Williams converted a three-point play, and Richard Roby then hit another three, but both scores were nothing more than cosmetic, with KU well ahead in the final minutes.
Roby hit one of two free throws after being fouled, giving him 30 points on the afternoon and a little bit of an ovation coming out of the game, as he’s the first opponent to accomplish that against KU this season.
Brady Morningstar, though, hit a three on the other end, making the crowd all but forget about Roby. Jeremy Case followed it with a three of his own, helping KU near the 100-point barrier with a 95-70 lead and just under two minutes to play.
The fans left chanted hard for the 100 points, and Brady Morningstar put the Jayhawks closer with two free throws at the :32.7-second mark, making it 97-73 and giving Morningstar a career-high five points. The 100 never came to, but KU left with a 97-74 win, with Brandon Rush and Mario Chalmers leading the way for KU with 21 points each and rendering Richard Roby’s 30 points for CU mostly meaningless. KU, now 18-3 overall and 5-1 in the Big 12, travels north to take on Nebraska Monday night at 8 p.m.
Update #9: 3:35, second half, KU leads 89-61
After a slopfest of sorts coming out of the timeout, Sherron Collins becmae the fourth Jayhawk to get into dobule digits in the point column, with a three-pointer giving him 11 on the day. After that came a Mario Chalmers layup in transition, giving him 21.
Darnell Jackson began a free throw laden-closing minutes by hitting four straight. A Brady Morningstar defensive hustle play on a Colorado fastbreak brought the game to its final break, with KU comfortably ahead by 28.
Update #8: 7:55, second half, KU leads 80-59
Chalmers hit both free throws before taking a seat on the bench in favor of Russell Robinson. Rush made it a five-point trip down the floor with a three in the corner, giving him a team-high 21 points on the afternoon.
Roby hit one of two free throws on a bonus trip, and Russell Robinson quickly did him better, first with a layup in transition and then a blocked shot on the defensive end, which turned into a trip to the free throw line for Sherron Collins. Collins hit one of two, but then stole the inbounds pass and took it in for a quick layup to put KU up 73-55.
Mario Chalmers came back into the game to score two huge points on a drive following a pair of Brandon Rush misses. Roby came back with two free throws, giving him 26 points on the day. But Russell Robinson hit a three to give himself 12 on the afternoon and KU a 78-59 lead.
Sherron Collins hit two free throws to bump KU up to the 80-point barrier with 7:55 left.
Update #7: 11:20, second half, KU leads 63-54
Roby scored yet again off of a Jermy Wilson-Jackson swipe out of the timeout, giving Roby 19 points in the game. Brandon Rush was finally able to answer back with his first second half points coming on a three-pointer in the corner.
Jackson-Wilson then became the first CU player other than Roby to score in awhile, but Wright came back with his third field goal of the game, keeping KU’s lead at 12 points.
Roby scored after each team had a failed transition possession, and Chalmers then scored his first points since the first stanza with a three in quick response, only to be followed by a Jackson-Wilson tip-in on a Silas miss. Roby scored to give himself 23 points and pull Colorado within nine at 63-54.
Right before the game went to another hiatus, Xavier Silas was called for an intentional foul on Mario Chalmers after the sophomore guard swiped the ball from his possession.
Update #6: 15:12, second half, KU leads 55-44
Xavier Silas hit a three in the corner to start the second half, and Brandon Rush immediately thereafter lost the ball out of bounds, giving it right back to CU, with KU clutching a 10-point lead.
Russell Robinson scored KU’s first points of the second half, though, on a steal and swoop into the lane. Siles then was whistled for a travel while driving the lane. Robinson then dished a ball into Sasha Kaun for his second big dunk of the game, bumping KU’s lead back up to 14.
Kaun scored again inside after Richard Roby missed a rainbowed three from the left corner. Silas, though, ended CU’s drought by hitting his third three of the game, and he’s responsible for the Buffaloes’ first six points of the half.
Any momentum that brought went bye-bye quickly, as Julian Wright flushed in his first two points since re-entering the game from a lengthy benching, stemming from his first half blown open-court dunk opportunity.
Colorado called a timeout to regroup some, and Roby got himself to the free throw line out of it by muscling inside. His two free throws tied him with Brandon Rush for a game-high 15 points. Roby scored again in transition with a pretty finger roll off of a KU miss. He then grabbed a defensive off of Brandon Rush’s missed three from the wing.
Update #5: Halftime, KU leads 47-34
Colorado scored three straight points out of the break, and a foul on Sasha Kaun against Jeremy Williams silenced the Fieldhouse crowd a bit. Williams made one of two free throws, but Roby tracked down the offensive board on the second, and Williams hit a short jumper to quickly pull Colorado back within 13 points at 43-30.
Brandon Rush scored his toughest two points of the game after Bill Self angrily whistled for a 30-second timeout to put KU back in command with less than two minutes to go before halftime.
Darnell jackson was fouled on the perimeter, and two free throws put KU back up by 17 with 98 seconds to go. Roby came back, though, and scored again to give him 13 points on the afternoon.
Dwight Thorne’s two free throws gave KU the half’s final possession, but Sasha Kaun was wiped by Marcus King-Stockton, keeping it at 47-34 at halftime. Brandon Rush and Mario Chalmers have combined for 27 of KU’s points, while Richard Roby leads CU with 13.
Update #4: 3:52, first half, KU leads 43-24
Sasha Kaun’s first points of the game on an inside jumper were followed with a Roby three. But Arthur then got himself in the point column as well with a swished jumper from the top of the key.
Russell Robinson then scored again, drawing a goaltending call in transition. An offensive foul on Colorado gave the ball back to KU and put the Jayhawks in the bonus for all future fouls.
The fruits of that came right away, as Richard Roby was called for a foul on Brandon Rush after the Jayhawks took down a defensive board. Rush hit two free throws, and after Roby scored again, Kaun smashed home a two-handed dunk flying down the lane just seconds later. After another CU turnover and a Russell Robinson swipe after the Buffs had a defensive rebound in hand, Darnell Jackson hit a mid-range jumper to put KU up 43-24.
Update #3: 7:51, first half, KU leads 31-19
Rush put himself in double figures on KU’s first possession out of the timeout. After CU knocked the ball out of bounds, Rush took an inbounds pass for a wide open two on the baseline, giving the sophomore 11 points so far.
Richard Roby scored his first point of the game, hitting one of two free throws after being fouled inside. Julian Wright, though, after a big blocked shot underneath came back with a reverse layup to put KU up 25-11.
Roby came back with his first field goal of the game, but Chalmers one-upped him with a three-pointer, giving himself 12 points on the afternoon.
Colorado showed some live, as Jeremy Williams scored two inside and got a free throw on top of it, and an offensive foul on KU put the ball back in their hands.
Unable to score and following an offensive foul on freshman Sean Kowal, Russell Robinson hit his first three of the game, which was immediately was followed up with a Roby three, giving Colorado’s leading scorer six points.
The game went to a full break with Self in disgust, after Julian Wright tried a windmill dunk in the open court, but lost the ball on his way up, leading Self to grab Darrell Arthur off the bench to replace the limping Wright, who crashed to the floor with the missed opportunity.
Update #2: 11:48, first half, KU leads 21-10
Jeremy Williams scored an inside two for CU right out of the break, and KU could not answer, as Mario Chalmers missed a close-range leaner along the left baseline.
Brandon Rush answered back, though, with his second long two-point jumper, and a Colorado traveling call gave the ball back to the Jayhawks.
With freshmen Sherron Collins and Darrell Arthur in the game, Collins quickly provided a spark, slashing to the basket with the shot clock dwindling on what looked like a wasted possession to score an old-fashioned three-point play.
KU traded points with the Buffs, with Chalmers answering two CU free throws with two points in the lane. Chalmers then came back at Dominique Coleman’s three-pointer with a trey of his own, forcing Ricardo Patton to call for a 30-second timeout at the 12:33 mark. The five consecutive points from Chalmers gave him nine in the game.
Rush hit another KU three out of the timeout with the CU bench screaming in his ear, putting KU up 21-10 and giving Rush nine points as well.
Update #1: 15:29, first half, KU leads 8-3
KU controlled the opening tip, but Mario Chalmers’ jumper coming off of a nasty Sasha Kaun screen went long off the back iron. Colorado’s Richard Roby couldn’t answer, but KU’s Julian Wright lost the ball off of his foot in transition, giving the ball back to the Buffs.
Both Colorado and KU then missed offensive opportunities, fist with CU’s Jeremy Williams clanging a jumper and then Russell Robinson doing the same, but Mario Chalmers’ defense in the halfcourt forced a Colorado turnover, and Brandon Rush started the game’s scoring with a long two-pointer just over two minutes into the game.
Colorado’s Kal Bay, drawing an unexpected start, gave CU a lead with a long three, and KU turned the ball over again, this time trying to get the ball over the shoulder of Sasha Kaun on the entry pass.
KU took that lead back quickly, though. First on a Julian Wright steal, Brandon Rush took the ball the length of the court with Richard Roby draped on his back during a two-handed dunk. No foul was called, which led Rush to stare down the officials. But Chalmers took the inbounds pass away for a layup of his own, putting KU up 6-3. He missed the free throw which went with it.
After some more sloppy possessions, Rush hit Chalmers perfectly in stride for a slicing layup, sending the game into its first full break with KU leading by five.
Pregame
After a pair of trips down south to Texas, which netted 50-50 results, Kansas returns home today for its first game in Allen Fieldhouse since an 80-77 win over Missouri on Jan. 15.
KU looks to be getting a soft landing back at home, as the Jayhawks host Colorado, who has been this year’s Big 12 cellar dweller. The Buffaloes enter with an overall mark of 5-11, and are just 1-5 in conference play, coming off of back-to-back losses to Nebraska and Missouri.
While KU again appeared to click at full speed in Wednesday’s win at Baylor, the most intriguing matchup to watch today will be between KU sophomore Brandon Rush and CU junior Richard Roby. Despite CU’s poor mark in the win-loss column, Roby, just as he has been the past two seasons, is the team’s one consistent piece. The 6-foot-6 small forward is averaging 16.7 points per game, and has always played well against the Jayhawks.
