The Kansas men’s basketball team won its 54th straight home opener on Monday night, pulling away from Fordham midway through the second half and cruising to a 95-65 victory at Allen Fieldhouse.
The Jayhawks tripled their lead in an eight-minute stretch ahead of the under-four timeout, easing any lingering tension in their battle with the mid-level Atlantic 10 opponent.
Fifth-year guard Tre White provided an efficient 22 points on 9-for-12 shooting. Sophomore guard Leroy Blyden Jr., a Toledo transfer, and freshman forward Tyran Stokes each added 15 in their first action as Jayhawks.
Head coach Bill Self called Blyden the best player in the game: “I thought he was really good. He hadn’t seen the ball go in the hole in a game yet, so that was nice to see.”
Melvin Council Jr. contributed 10 points, seven assists and six rebounds, and Trey Kaufman-Renn had nine points and five boards in his first action as a Jayhawk.
Akira Jacobs led the Rams with 20 points after making his first five 3-pointers. Fordham did secure 15 offensive rebounds on the night, which it turned into 12 second-chance points.
After five early points from White helped KU earn a slight lead, Kaufman-Renn checked in for the first time as a Jayhawk, with an ovation and “TKR” chants from the crowd, and immediately posted up 6-foot-11 Jack Whitbourn for a successful hook shot.
Fordham briefly pulled ahead with 3-pointers by Lateef Patrick Jr. and Amir Lindsey. After a long and disjointed stretch for the Jayhawks, they entered the under-12 timeout with a 20-15 lead following a long rebound and left-handed layup by Blyden.
Blyden knocked down his first 3-pointer soon afterward to make it 24-16 and force a timeout by Fordham midway through the half.
“The atmosphere just brought everything to light,” Blyden said. “It was just positive and fun.”
The Rams entered a zone after going down 28-16 but immediately allowed an alley-oop dunk to Stokes off a feed from Blyden. Fordham had allowed a 16-1 run and missed 12 straight shot before a 3-pointer by Jacobs made it 30-19.
Kaufman-Renn, who was 18-for-64 on 3s during his tenure at Purdue, knocked down one of his own, as did White soon afterward.
The Rams worked their way back within single digits when Whitbourn connected from deep with just inside of four minutes remaining. But then they returned to the zone defense for a series of unsuccessful possessions that allowed KU to go back ahead by its largest margin of 15 points.
Fordham’s Hassan Koureissi got called for an intentional foul trying to stop a fast-break dunk by Keanu Dawes, but it worked out because Dawes missed two free throws and Stokes only made 1 of 2 on the ensuing possession. Then Jacobs converted a four-point play and KU’s halftime lead was 43-31. White led all scorers with 13 points at the break.
“My teammates give me the ultimate confidence every day in practice,” White said, “every game they give me the ultimate belief, and I just got to go out there and just play free.”
Jacobs hit from deep again on Fordham’s first offensive possession of the second half, then tipped in a putback in transition as the margin shrank to seven points. KU was able to respond with a 7-0 run, only to allow some 3-pointers in return to Jacobs and Patrick (twice).
“I thought we played terrible to start the second half,” Self said. “I thought Tre and Mel got us off to a bad start, and then after that I thought we were really good. I thought there was a stretch for about 12 minutes — that’s the best we’ve looked in a game.”
After winning a challenge during the under-12 timeout, KU extended its lead to 65-51 when White was able to knock in a lob through a foul, earning a fist pump from head coach Bill Self. Stokes spotted up for a 3 soon afterward.
“I think just sticking to our principles,” White said of the second-half surge. “Especially in these early games, it’s not about playing the other team, it’s about getting our principles together, and I feel like in the second half we cleaned up on a lot of that, played a little faster, played a little tougher.”
Whitbourn’s 3-pointer with 8:15 to go broke a scoreless spell of nearly four minutes from the Rams, who still trailed 73-54.
Freshman wing Trent Perry earned his first collegiate point on a free throw and then threw down a vicious right-handed dunk after snagging a loose ball. Walk-on Will Thengvall also drove in for a layup late for his first-ever bucket, and Davion Adkins roused the crowd with a late dunk of his own.
“It was amazing, seeing them just get up in the air and tear the rim down,” Blyden said.
The Jayhawks will next host Middle Tennessee on Friday at 8 p.m.
“You already know every game isn’t good enough,” White said. “Still got stuff to build on. We’re not playing to beat this team, we’re playing to win in March, so just trying to tighten up our principles.”
