(1)Kansas 70, (8)North Carolina 58
March 24, 2013
Recap | Final Stats |
KANSAS STARTERS (Career/Season):
– Kevin Young (32/32), Ben McLemore (36/36), Elijah Johnson (82/36), Travis Releford (78/36) and Jeff Withey (76/36).
THE KANSAS WIN:
– Makes Kansas 31-5 and give KU 31 victories for the fourth-straight season and the sixth time in the Bill Self era.
– Advances Kansas to its 30th NCAA Tournament Sweet 16, including its sixth under head coach Bill Self.
– Makes KU 15-4 in games away from Allen Fieldhouse (7-3 in true road games and 8-1 on neutral floors)
– Makes the KU-UNC series 6-5 in favor of the North Carolina, including a 4-2 Kansas edge in NCAA Tournament meetings.
– Makes Kansas 8-0 in the Sprint Center in 2012-13 and 22-4 all time in the venue.
– Makes Kansas 95-40 all-time in NCAA Tournament games, including 16-7 in NCAA Tournament games played in Kansas City.
– Makes Bill Self 300-58 while at Kansas, 507-163 all-time and 35-12 all-time in the NCAA Tournament, 25-7 while at Kansas.
– Makes Kansas 2,101-811 all-time.
TEAM NOTES:
– For the second straight game, and just the eighth time this season, Kansas trailed at the break. Kansas trailed 30-21, matching the Jayhawks’ largest deficit of the season having trailed both Baylor and TCU by nine in road losses to both schools. It was the largest deficit overcome by Kansas this season as the Jayhawks evened the tally at 4-4 when behind at half.
– Kansas shot 25 percent (7-for-28) in the first half, its lowest field goal percentage in a half in NCAA Tournament play. Kansas’ previous shooting low for a half was 28.6 percent in the second half against UCLA in the 1974 Final Four.
– The top field goal percentage defense in the nation stayed true to form Sunday, even when the baskets weren’t falling on the other end. As bad as KU’s 25 percent mark in the first half felt, it was still just 1.2 percent worse than North Carolina’s 26.2 percent mark in the game’s first 20 minutes. North Carolina entered the game scoring at a rate of 77.3 points per game and 44.5 percent from the field, but was held to just 30.1 percent from the field Sunday.
– There were plenty of missed shots to snag in the contest and the Jayhawks made the best of it with a season-high tying 50 rebounds. The total was most in a regulation game this year as Kansas pulled down 50 boards in a double-overtime win at Oklahoma State.
– Two days after seeing its streak of games with a three-pointer end at an even 200, Kansas went 0-for-6 in the first half before knocking down 5-of-8 (62.5 percent) of the attempts from long range in the second half. Tharpe (3), Releford (1) and Johnson (1) each hit three-pointers in the game’s second 20 minutes.
– Kansas turned the ball over a season-high 22 times.
INDIVIDUAL NOTES:
– Senior G Travis Releford logged his third 20-point effort inside Center this season with 22 points Sunday. It was the most points ever in NCAA Tournament play for the Kansas City native, topping his previous high of 15 against Ohio State in the Final Four last year. The 22 points are the third-highest total for Releford in his career. Releford inched closer to 1,000 points for his career and has 949 with potentially four games left in his career.
– Senior C Jeff Withey blocked five more shots Sunday and topped his own Kansas single season record set a year ago (140) with 141, while pushing his Big 12 and Kansas career record to 306 blocks. Furthermore, Withey’s blocks moved him past Duke’s Shelden Williams (39), Florida’s Joakhim Noah (41) and Duke’s Shane Battier (42) into second place for career blocks in the NCAA Tournament at 43. Wake Forest’s Tim Duncan leads the all-time list with 50 career blocks in NCAA action. Withey has blocked 11 shots in two games during this year’s tournament after setting the NCAA single tournament record with 31 a year ago.
– In addition to impacting the game on the defensive end, Withey recorded a double-double – his first ever in NCAA Tournament play – with 16 points and 16 rebounds. The double-double was his 13th this season which ranks 10th on KU’s single season list. The 16 rebounds were a season best.
– Sophomore G Naadir Tharpe reached double figures in an NCAA Tournament game for the first time in his short career with 12 points, all in the second half. Tharpe hit all three of his three-point attempts in the second half and finished the game 3-of-6 from the field and 3-for-4 from long range.
– Senior F Kevin Young narrowly missed a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds. It was Young’s 10th game in double figures this year and first since Scoring 14 in the Jayhawks’ regular season home finale.
