Kansas Improves to 2-0 on Canada Trip with 101-46 Blowout
Sept. 5, 2004
VANCOUVER, B.C. – The future stars shined for Kansas men’s basketball in its 101-46 win against Langara College, Sunday.
Freshmen big men Sasha Kaun, Darnell Jackson and C.J. Giles combined for 49 points, and KU rookie guards Alex Galindo and Russell Robinson added a combined 28 points in a game that was never in doubt from the outset.
Kansas head coach Bill Self elected to start a young group against Langara – a two-year college – as the Jayhawks play two games on Sunday. Expect the regular starters back for game two as KU will face the University College of Fraser Valley at 9 p.m. (Central). All games on the Canada trip will air on the Jayhawk Radio Network.
“I thought all the freshmen did really well today. The future stars shined for Kansas men’s basketball in its 101-46 win against Langara College, here Sunday.,” Self said. “I’m real excited about our big guys, even if we played a weak team. They scored over both shoulders. Sasha kept the ball high so much better today than yesterday. Our fans will love to watch Russell because he has unbelievable feel.”
Kaun (6-11) was 8-for-12 from the field for the game and led all scorers with 20 points. He was just ahead of Jackson (6-8) who was 8-for-10 from the floor scoring 19 points against the undersized Falcons. Giles scored 10 points and had four rebounds in 17 minutes for the game.
Robinson dished out five assists and had two blocked shots and two steals for the Jayhawks. Galindo ended the day with a double-double as he scored 16 points and pulled down 10 rebounds.
Joining Galindo, Robinson and Giles in the starting lineup were juniors Stephen Vinson, a Lawrence product, and Moulaye Niang. Normally a late reserve for KU. Vinson logged 34 minutes and scored nine points, dished out eight assists and had four steals. Niang pulled down seven rebounds to go along with four points and two steals.
Dazzling steals and easy layups were pretty much the theme for the game as KU registered 18 steals and forced 26 turnovers. The Jayhawks limited Langara to only four first half field goals on 15.4 percent shooting in mounting a 46-19 intermission score.
The second half saw more of the same as KU ended the day scoring 35 points off Langara turnovers before a Kansas-partisan crowd of 550 at War Memorial Gym on the campus of the University of British Columbia.
The 55-point difference was the largest for an exhibition game for KU since a 120-51 win against Emporia State on Nov. 4, 2000. Additionally, this marked the fourth time in its last six exhibition games that Kansas has surpassed the 100-point mark.
