Albeit without some of the offensive fireworks, the first half Monday night followed much the same script as Kansas’ road loss at West Virginia two days earlier.
The Jayhawks started strong once more, again buoyed by the early shooting of Johnny Furphy, but defensive struggles as the half drew on caused them to surrender their lead and enter the half tied — even with the benefit of the Allen Fieldhouse crowd this time around.
However, KU built a few baskets’ distance in the second half against Cincinnati in a way it never could against WVU, and in their first matchup welcoming a new Big 12 Conference foe to Lawrence since March 2, 2013, the Jayhawks emerged with a 74-69 win over the spirited Bearcats.
The freshman Furphy set new career highs in points (23) and rebounds (11) to help account for an off night for the rest of KU’s starters — although Kevin McCullar Jr. ended up with 20 points despite shooting 5-for-17 — and its bench, which accounted for two points (last-second free throws by Elmarko Jackson).
Cincinnati relied on the efforts off the bench of Dan Skillings Jr., the Bearcats’ top scorer (16) in a largely well-balanced offensive game. UC struggled from deep (3-for-18) but sustained itself with free throws (18-for-23), which had been a weakness in previous Big 12 matchups.
The Jayhawks gave up an early second-chance layup to Viktor Lakhin but responded with 10 straight points in a charged-up Allen Fieldhouse, including 3-pointers by Furphy and McCullar, as UC’s Simas Lukošius started the game a quick 0-for-4.
Skillings drained a 3 out of the first media timeout, but it did little to halt KU’s early momentum, as the Jayhawks went on another 9-2 run capped off when Dickinson tipped in a lobbed inbounds pass. They ran out of steam, though, midway through the half as Skillings blew past Furphy for a dunk and then hit a 3 over him to cut the deficit to 21-16.
Cincinnati drew within one point when Day Day Thomas drained a pull-up jumper through a foul by Nick Timberlake and converted the and-1 opportunity.
KU got a couple of breaks to help maintain its lead, including an 0-for-2 trip to the line by Lakhin, and active hands by Dajuan Harris Jr. in transition — after a bad-pass turnover — that allowed him to bounce a ball off Skillings and win another possession for the Jayhawks. But Cincinnati pulled ahead for the first time thanks to the continued efforts of Skillings, who scored six additional points in the final 3:11 to get to a game-high 14, and ultimately went into the half tied 35-35 after Jizzle James traveled with 1.1 seconds remaining.
The Jayhawks did not convert a field goal for the final 2:58 ahead of the break. For the second game in a row, Furphy led the team in rebounding by a wide margin, but KU as a whole trailed the Bearcats 21-12 on the boards.
Furphy missed a pair of free throws early in the second half, but he scored five quick points on fast breaks to help KU jump ahead 42-37. The teams then traded buckets until a massive Kevin McCullar 3 with 13:54 to go off an offensive rebound by Furphy and a one-touch pass by Parker Braun. That made it 48-41 in KU’s favor.
Hunter Dickinson went to the bench with his fourth foul with 10:02 to go, right as Cincinnati began to cut back into the lead. On the flip side, KU also induced the fourth foul by Thomas, meaning both teams played key minutes below full strength.
The Jayhawks ended a stretch of more than three minutes without a field goal when Harris used a sharp pump fake to win space for a fast-break layup and put KU back up seven.
The Bearcats did them one better by going nearly seven minutes without a bucket, although managed to stay close enough via a slew of free throws — until Furphy hit a 3 at the shot-clock buzzer with two minutes to go to make it 67-57.
KU will travel to Ames to face Iowa State on Saturday at 12:30 p.m.
