The Allen Fieldhouse crowd greeted Stanford head coach and former Kansas standout Jerod Haase with a long ovation prior to Saturday afternoon’s tip-off. The Jayhawks on the court weren’t as kind to Haase’s Cardinal.
A current star KU guard, Devonté Graham, poured in all 15 of his points in the first half, when Graham knocked down five three-pointers. His senior running mate, Frank Mason III, got more involved in the final 20 minutes, and finished with team-highs of 20 points and five assists, helping Kansas defeat Haase’s squad, 89-74.
Here’s a quick look back at some of the action:
• The game turned when: Kansas responded to an early second-half surge from the Cardinal that cut the lead to eight. A Lagerald Vick three-pointer, Carlton Bragg layup, Vick tip-in and back-to-back baskets from Mason built the Jayhawks’ lead back to 14. The margin hovered in that range the rest of the way as Kansas survived the challenge from its Pac-12 foe.
• Offensive highlight: Jackson already had opened the second half with a layup. So he wasn’t feeling overly greedy seconds later upon stealing the ball from Stanford’s Michael Humphrey. Jackson could’ve unleashed on the rim at the north end of the fieldhouse himself. Instead, the freshman rewarded 7-footer Udoka Azubuike for making the effort to try and match Jackson’s pace in transition. Jackson tossed the ball up high off the backboard and Azubuike hammered home the highlight jam, growing the Kansas lead to 47-35 less than 30 seconds removed form the conclusion of halftime.
Of course, as KU has grown to expect out of Jackson (13 points), the freshman phenom wasn’t done there. At the midway point of the second half, Graham spotted Jackson on the left side of the floor as he drove on the right. Graham lofted a lob pass up over the rim, and Jackson sky-walked to snatch the ball and hammer home a dunk for a 68-54 Kansas lead.
• Defensive highlight: Still early enough in the game that neither team really could claim it had taken control, a poor Lagerald Vick pass out of the corner in front of the Stanford bench had potential to set off a Cardinal fast break.
Once the visitors got out and running, though, KU senior center Landen Lucas caught up. Marcus Sheffield, who took the errant pass the other direction, rose up for a lay-in, but Lucas (eight points, five rebounds, three blocks) had chased him down and knocked the attempt away, preventing Stanford from scoring and maintaining KU’s 17-11 advantage early on in the first half.
• Key stat: Three-point shooting. Graham got the long-range display going in the first half, when he buried five of eight from beyond the arc and KU knocked down seven of 12. More of the same came after the break, thanks to a late surge from Mykhailiuk. The junior from Ukraine shot 3-for-5 from downtown and Kansas finished 12-for-22 in the victory.
• Up next: The Jayhawks will be back in Allen Fieldhouse Tuesday night to play host to UMKC at 7 p.m.
— See what people were saying about the game during KUsports.com’s live coverage.