Marcus Morris Sparks Kansas In Second Half In Record Tying Men's Basketball Victory
Nov. 19, 2010
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LAWRENCE, Kan. – Marcus Morris scored 10 of Kansas’ first 12 points of the second half to start a 31-8 run which lifted the No. 7 Jayhawks to a convincing 93-60 win against North Texas in men’s basketball action Friday night.
The victory was KU’s 62nd straight home victory – a figure which not only is the longest in the nation, but matches the program’s school record set from 1994-98. Kansas improved to 3-0 on the season, while North Texas fell to 2-1.
Morris actually scored 13 of 15 KU points from the end of the first half and into the second half. His basket and a later free throw closed the scoring in the first half. That first-half basket was his first after missing four straight to open the game. He then connected on seven straight from the field en route to a game-high 20 points.
Morris was joined in double-figures by his brother Markieff Morris, who had 13, including nine of KU’s first 11 points to start the game, and Elijah Johnson, who netted a career-high tying 11 points. The sophomore scored 11 vs. Radford last year.
Brady Morningstar handed out a career-high 10 assists, while Thomas Robinson matched a season-best and was one shy of a career high with 10 rebounds.
North Texas was led by Tristan Thompson, who scored 14, and Josh White, who had 10 points.
After KU moved its second-half lead to 48-31, North Texas made a pair of free throws. Then the Jayhawks made three consecutive three-pointers on their next three possessions before a Johnson dunk capped off an 11-0 run to make it 59-33. Johnson started the run with a three, followed by a three from Morningstar and another three from Marcus Morris.
From there, the Jayhawks cruised to the win, leading by as many as 37 points. KU scored 57 points in the second half, just three shy of UNT’s game total of 60 points. After making 48 percent of its shots in the first half, Kansas connected on 20 of 29 second half shots for a 69 percent clip. They finished the game at 59.3 percent.
North Texas shot 42 percent from the field and was out-rebounded 35-26.
Markieff Morris jump started the Jayhawks right off the bat scoring the first six and nine of KU’s first 11 points as KU built up a 15-4 lead to begin the game. The Jayhawks hit eight of their first 10 shots from the field before going four of 15 the rest of the period.
Markieff Morris ended the first half with 10 points on four of six shooting. He also added seven rebounds in his 12 minutes.
Kansas led 30-16 before the visitors scored seven straight points to cut the margin to seven with four minutes left in the period. KU responded behind the play of Jeff Withey, who hit a free throw and a follow dunk to spark a little 5-0 run, which was capped by a Marcus Morris basket. Marcus’ basket was his first of the game after missing four straight.
KU led 37-26 at the break, outshooting UNT 48 to 37 percent and taking advantage of 13 Mean Green fouls to make 11 of 18 free throws.
Kansas will host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Tuesday, Nov. 23. Tipoff is at 7 p.m. and the game will be televised on Jayhawk Network.
