Morris Key in Overtime as No. 1 Kansas Defeats Colorado
Feb. 3, 2010
BOULDER, Colo. –
In its second-straight contest of overtime, sophomore Marcus Morris scored six of Kansas’ 12 points in overtime to power the No. 1-ranked Jayhawks to a 72-66 victory at Colorado Wednesday evening.
Trailing by one point with 38 seconds remaining in regulation time, KU senior Sherron Collins made one of two free throws to send the Jayhawks into overtime for the second-straight time since the 2004-05.
Kansas went on to score the first seven points in the extra period and Morris hit two free throws in the final seconds to ice the victory as the Jayhawks improved to 21-1 overall and 7-0 in the Big 12 for the second-straight season. Colorado evened its record to 11-11 overall and dropped to 2-6 in league play.
Junior center Cole Aldrich poured in 16 points and grabbed 14 rebounds in the effort for his fourth consecutive double-double. Collins matched Aldrich with 16 points of his own.
Morris was the third Jayhawk in double figure scoring 15 points to go along with eight rebounds.
After holding the lead for the entire contest, Kansas trailed 60-59 with 56 seconds remaining in regulation after a pair of CU free throws. Collins drove to the basket on Kansas’ next possession and was sent to the foul line where he sank one of his two charity shots to tie the score and a CU shot clock violation sent the game into overtime.
KU struggled with an uncharacteristic 47.4 percent shooting from the free throw line, a season low, but still managed to hit 18 foul shots compared to CU’s 10. Kansas also held the Buffaloes to 37.5 percent from the field, while hitting 44.6 percent of its own shots.
Kansas controlled the game early scoring 10 unanswered points at the 13:38 mark during the first half, which it then extended to a 20-2 run with points from eight different Jayhawks for a 24-8 lead by the second media timeout.
As the first half wound down, Kansas suddenly lost some of its earlier momentum as Colorado came back to score eight-straight points and whittle its deficit down to four points at 30-26 with 3:19 left on the clock.
Aldrich became a key factor for KU toward the end of the half scoring the Jayhawks’ last four points. In the final 30 seconds, Aldrich swatted Colorado’s last shot attempt from the paint to give Kansas a 34-28 lead at halftime.
Four players contributed five or more points in the opening half, including nine from Aldrich.
Colorado came out of the locker room and hit back-to-back three-pointers in the opening minute and a half to knot the score at 34. The teams tied twice more during the next three minutes. After the 16:31 mark, Kansas kept the lead through the rest of the game until 56 seconds left in regulation time when the Buffaloes hit two free throws to take its one-point lead at 60-59.
Kansas returns home Saturday, Feb. 6 to host Nebraska at 5 p.m. on ESPNU. The Jayhawks defeated the Huskers 84-72 on Jan. 13 in Lincoln earlier this season.
