No. 7 Kansas Overpowers Showdown against Kansas State, 77-59

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LAWRENCE, Kan. – Kansas reached the half-way point of Big 12 regular season play with a 77-59 victory over K-State in the Dillons Sunflower Showdown on Wednesday night.

Kansas (18-4, 6-3 Big 12) won its 36th-straight game in Allen Fieldhouse and 10th-straight home game against its in-state rival behind 55 percent shooting from the field and 19 points from senior forward Perry Ellis.

Kansas forced 23 K-State turnovers with 10 steals and scored 30 points off Wildcat turnovers. The Jayhawks shot over 50 percent for the 10th time this season and third time during Big 12 play.

Ellis continued to be the picture of consistency for the Jayhawks, pouring in a team-high 19 points on 8-of-11 shooting, including a perfect 3-for-3 mark from beyond the arc. Sophomore guard Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk came off the bench to score 10 points for his first career double-figure scoring effort in a Big 12 contest.

Kansas State (13-9, 2-7) was led by 15 points from Wesley Iwundu and a 14-point, 11-rebound double-double from Stephen Hurt. The Wildcats held a 36 to 21 rebounding advantage.

After both teams started at a slow scoring pace the Wildcats used a 12-0 run, powered in-part by a pair of 3-pointers and a series of put-back buckets at the rim, to take a 16-7 lead at the 10:56 mark of the first half.

Mykhailiuk came off the bench to provide a much-needed spark for the Jayhawks. In his first four minutes of action, he scored six points with two steals and an assist. Mykhailiuk’s layup, and-1, started a 13-4 run in which Kansas tied it at 20 with 7:40 remaining in the opening half.

Ellis found his groove despite K-State’s double- and sometimes triple-team defense from K-State on the Jayhawks’ leading scorer. After missing his first three shots of the night, Ellis scored eight points in under four minutes between the nine-minute and five-minute marks of the first half.  

“Perry is very, very good […] we will be happy when he graduates because that means we don’t have to face him anymore” K-State head coach Bruce Weber said after the game. “He is so patient and takes what defenders give him.”

Kansas ended the first half on a 14-3 run to go into the locker room with a 39-29 advantage. In the waning moments of the first half Frank Mason III penetrated the lane and dished it out to the near-60 percent 3-point shooter Brannen Greene in the corner, who drained a trey while being fouled in the act of shooting by K-State’s Brian Rohleder. Greene made the free throw to give KU a 10-point lead at halftime.

Kansas made 9-of-10 free throws in the last five minutes of the first half.

K-State chipped away at KU’s lead in the first seven minutes of the second half, coming within two points, 47-45, with 12:03 remaining.

Wayne Selden Jr., stopped the Wildcats’ momentum with a 3-pointer, followed by a fast-break alley-oop that Graham enabled with a steal and an assist in the open court. Allen Fieldhouse was sent into a flurry of excitement as KU scored nine points in under a minute to regain control of the Sunflower Showdown.

Kansas took a 17-point lead after Mason darted through the lane and kicked it out to the perimeter to Ellis, who made his third 3-pointer in as many tries with 6:02 remaining.

Kansas maintained a comfortable lead in the last five minutes of the game before the buzzer sounded with a 77-59 final score.

In the opening statement of his postgame press conference, Bill Self apologized to Kansas State for a last-second uncontested “classless” dunk by Greene which put KU up by 18 points.

NEXT UP
Kansas looks to snap a three-game road losing skid with a trip to Fort Worth, Texas, to face TCU on Saturday, Feb. 6, at 11 a.m. Central on ESPN. The TCU game marks the beginning KU’s second round through the Big 12’s double round-robin regular season schedule.

POSTGAME NOTES

KU STARTERS (SEASON/CAREER STARTS): 
Jr. G Frank Mason III (22/61)
So. G Devonte’ Graham (21/21)
Jr. G Wayne Selden Jr. (22/93)
Sr. F Perry Ellis (23/93)
Jr. F Landen Lucas (4/18)

SERIES INFO 

  • Kansas now leads the overall series with Kansas State, 189-93.
  • Since Feb. 12, 1994, Kansas has won 50 of the last 55 meetings with K-State.
  • KU is now 87-35 against KSU in games played in Lawrence, including a 46-18 record inside Allen Fieldhouse.
  • KU has won the last 10 games in Allen Fieldhouse beginning in 2007.
  • Since the inception of the Big 12 Conference, KU is 42-5 against KSU (34-5 in regular-season battles and 8-0 in the Big 12 Championship).
  • The Jayhawks have beaten the Wildcats by an average margin of 18.4 points in the last 10 meetings in Lawrence.

ATTENDANCE: 16,300 (239th-consecutive sellout)

KANSAS’ WIN…

  • Gave Kansas its 10th-straight win against Kansas State in Allen Fieldhouse.
  • Extended Kansas’ winning streak in Allen Fieldhouse to 36 games.
  • Made Kansas 12-0 in Allen Fieldhouse this season, 740-109 all-time in the venue, including 202-9 under Bill Self.
  • Made Self 370-78 while at Kansas, 577-187 all-time and 25-5 versus Kansas State (24-5 while at Kansas).
  • Made KU 2,171-835 all-time.
  • Made Kansas 151-1 under Bill Self when holding opponents to 59 or fewer points.

TEAM NOTES

  • Kansas outscored KSU 13-3 over the final 2:52 of the first half. Six of those points came in the final 13 seconds of the half.
  • Kansas was outrebounded by Kansas State 36-21, which marked just the sixth game this season a KU opponent outrebounded the Jayhawks. The -15 margin on the boards was Kansas’ largest rebounding deficit since KU was topped by 19 (35-16) at Oklahoma on Feb. 26, 2011.
  • KU’s 21 total rebounds are the fewest by a Jayhawk team since they pulled down 19 boards at Duke on Feb. 18, 1989. Kansas’ two offensive rebounds were also the team’s fewest since pulling down two against Missouri on Feb. 13, 1993. The mark was the fewest in a conference game since Kansas grabbed 14 rebounds on Feb. 5, 1980 against Nebraska in Allen Fieldhouse.
  • Kansas forced 23 Kansas State turnovers, the most Kansas has forced by an opponent this season. KU’s 30 points off turnovers were also its most of the season.
  • The Jayhawks added 10 steals, their most in a conference game this year, and their highest swipe tally since they posted 11 steals against Oregon State on Dec. 12.
  • KU was 27-of-49 for a 55.1 percent clip shooting from the field. KU has now shot better than 50 percent in 10 games this season and is 9-1 in those contests.
  • In the second half, Kansas was 65.2 percent (15-of-23) from the field, the fifth time the Jayhawks have shot 65 percent of better in a half this season.

INDIVIDUAL NOTES

  • Senior F Perry Ellis passed Ron Kellogg for No. 19 on KU’s all-time scoring list, now with 1,519 points in his career and seven points behind Drew Gooden for 18th on the KU scoring chart.
  • Ellis shot a perfect 3-of-3 from beyond the three point arc, marking the second time in his career he has shot 100-percent from three with a minimum of three attempts. He was also 3-of-3 from three against Texas Tech on Jan. 10, 2015.
  • Sophomore G Svi Mykhailiuk’s 10 points marked his first double-figure scoring game in conference play in his Kansas career. His 21 minutes were also the most he has seen in league play.
  • Mykhailiuk’s three steals were a career high.
  • Sophomore G Devonte’ Graham posted 10 points for his fifth double-figure scoring game in his last six outings. His 39 minutes played were also the most he has seen in a regulation game.
  • Senior F Jamari Traylor had multiple blocks (2) for the seventh time this season and the 29th time in his career.

OPPONENT NOTES

  • Prior to taking a 2-0 lead at the 19:29 mark of the first half, Kansas State had not held a lead in a game inside Allen Fieldhouse since it led 2-0 at the 19:37 mark of the first half in the game on Feb. 11, 2013.
  • KSU’s nine-point lead with 10:56 remaining in the first half was its largest inside Allen Fieldhouse during Bill Self era.

POSTGAME QUOTES

Bill Self
On the final play of the game:
“Brannen Greene, we’ve put up with him doing some stuff in the past, but that was probably the biggest [knucklehead] move I’ve ever had a player do during a game. To dunk the ball like that when the other team – even their players are going, ‘How disrespectful to the game.’ It certainly showed unbelievably poor sportsmanship. I apologize to K-State and their players. I guarantee that will never happen again or he will never be in the game at the end of the game.”

On the play of Svi Mykhailiuk:
“I thought Svi did good. Considering they just totally out-played us and they out-competed us – our guys were so soft. They dominated us on the glass. That’s a team that’s minus-three in the league in rebounding and we’re plus-five or whatever in the league in rebounding and to get dominated like that is embarrassing. Svi did do good. Obviously Frank (Mason III) struggled, Wayne (Selden, Jr.) was a no-show and certainly Perry (Ellis) kind of got it going a little bit. I thought our bench did a nice job, particularly in the first half and I thought Svi played very well the entire game.”

On the struggles starting halves in recent contests:
“First of all our guards didn’t come ready to play and our big guys can’t be so soft. If you look at the rebounding – 36-to-21 – our big guys couldn’t have played any softer. Our guards don’t rebound. I’m so pissed right now that we represented the way we did at the end. I thought K-State came really ready to play and I certainly thought we did not come ready and to be up by 10 at halftime when we had played so poorly was a testament to the guys that were in the game at the end of the half. To give the lead back, because obviously the same guys that weren’t ready to start the game obviously weren’t ready to start the second half. We kind of got it together after they tied it up, I think at 45-45. I certainly take responsibility too because I didn’t have our team ready to play and ready to compete. Bruce (Weber) and his staff did a great job getting their guys ready to play.”

On traveling to Fort Worth to play TCU Saturday:
“We’ve already played them. We beat them by seven here and we labored, but who’s not going to labor in this league from time-to-time. They’ve played a monster schedule and when you look at all of the teams they’ve played, of their nine games I bet seven of their games are against RPI teams in the top-50. We have to go down there and we have to play a heck of a lot better than we did today and hopefully get our guys attention tomorrow and Friday and go down there with a mindset to play together and play to win and not play to look good.” 

Senior F Perry Ellis
On what he needed to do on offense to get going after Kansas’ slow start:
“We just needed to calm down. I came out playing a little too fast.”

On Kansas’ defense and causing turnovers:
“I think our defense was good at times but it can still be better. I feel like we definitely pressured them at times.”

On what K-State did at the beginning of the game that was so effective:
“They clogged the lane very good and that didn’t allow us to drive. I feel like that hurt a little bit, especially early.”

On what he thought of Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk’s performance:
“I thought he played great. He came out and played hard and that led to some good things for us.”

On where he feels his three-point game is at:
“I feel like it is pretty high. I’ve been working on it, trying to get a lot of shots up. I try to take good three-point shots in the game.”

On why he is beginning to shoot more threes in the game:
“I’m not doing anything different. I just try to stay within our offense and find the open spot. My teammates do a good job of finding me and I’ll knock it down.”

On being outrebounded by 15 tonight:
“Coach Self mentioned that. That is something that we can’t allow to happen. That is a total team effort so that is something we need to do a better job of.”

On if he and Kansas State forward Dean Wade have played against one another before:
“I’ve never played against him. This was my first time and he is going to be a good player.”

On if Coach Self encourages him to shoot more threes than he already is:
“Coach Self doesn’t really say much about it. I know he has confidence in my ability to shoot the three, so I try to take good shots.”

Sophomore G Svi Mykhailiuk
On coming entering the game after playing sparingly in recent contests:
“I’m just trying to work hard at every practice and be mentally ready, because I know when my time comes, I have to be ready.”

On his performance against K-State:
“I don’t think it was great, but I think I played pretty well. My defense was pretty good, drove the ball a couple of times and took some open looks.”

On the crowd chanting ‘Svi’ when he plays:
“It’s nice to hear the crowd yelling your name and I think it gives me a lot of energy.”

Sophomore G Devonte’ Graham
On the slow start to the game:
“We definitely knew it wasn’t going to be a blowout or anything like that – it’s our in-state rival. We knew they were going to come ready to play and that we were going to have to grind it out. We need to learn how to win games like that because in March, it’s going to be ‘grind me out’ games.”

On the difference between playing on the road versus at home:
“We have to come out with energy, play as a team, stay together and can’t put our heads down when we make mistakes. We’ve been talking about it as a group and with the coaches. We have to get things right, then we’ll be good.”

On the boost the team received from Brannen Greene’s three-pointer at the end of the first half:
“BG was huge. He came right off the bench and knocked it down. We got momentum going into the half and went up 10 points. That was a big play.”

On how the defense played:
“At times it was good. We felt like we came out flat and that we weren’t guarding the ball screens correctly. It got them off to a good start and then after that, we settled down and started getting back to our principles to lock them up.”

Kansas State head coach Bruce Weber
Opening statement:
“Our kids, I’m proud of them. We’ve had some adversity obviously. We have a couple players out. We’ve lost some close games, keep coming back. I think we had a great game plan. Coach Lowry does a great job, he understands what Kansas does and our kids bought in. We defended really well early, that was going to be our key, our only chance here is to really defend well and make them earn baskets. I think we did that. We talked about keeping the ball moving and spacing which we did a pretty good job of. I thought our first two or three possessions were as good as we’ve had all year. We get a little sticky fingers sometimes and try to make things happen, but to their credit they turned it up. 

There were crucial calls at the end of the half, but our guys come back and cut it to two. Corby has a lay-up, not an easy lay-up, and then they go on a 15-0 run and we just wore down mentally and physically. Then obviously we had too many turnovers, you can’t have 23 on the road and expect to win a game against a very good team. Perry Ellis is special, he’s very, very good. I thought we did a decent job on him and he had 19 points, 3-for-3 from three. He’s so patient and takes what people give him. Then I thought Svi (Mykhailiuk) was key. He goes 10 points, four assists and did some really good things for them.”

On team running out of gas towards the end of the game:
“I think we got tired, there is no doubt. You have to fight through it. We obviously had some foul trouble.”

On Stephen Hurt’s jumper to make it a two point game with 12 minutes to go before Kansas’ run:
“They stepped up their pressure a little bit, the crowd got into it and then we had turnovers and gave them some easy baskets. Then they went into their ball screen thing, which we had done such a good job guarding in the first half, but we stopped reading it in that stretch.”

On message to the team at half:
“We have to keep coming back, we’re good enough. We led for 16 minutes. We’re good enough to play, we have to win the next four. We win the next four and we have to win the next four. But to their credit, they stepped it up and made plays.”

On not getting many calls before halftime:
“I told myself that I can’t get mad. I tried to keep my poise, and for 16-minutes I didn’t say a word to them, but I can’t let the kids get frustrated. You have to fight through it, you have to be tougher than that. You have to take care of the ball and you have to finish. That’s all you can do.”

Kansas State Junior F Wesley Iwundu 
On how Kansas came back in the first half:
“We just kind of got sticky fingers on offense. It caused us to slip on defense. Coach (Weber) said we can’t let our offense determine our defense, and I think that happened. They went on a little run and caught up to us.”

On fighting past tough foul calls:
“You know, it’s a road game. It’s what is expected. I just tried to tell the guys, ‘Keep your composure, keep your head because we’re not getting calls on the road – especially in Allen Fieldhouse.’ It’s a tough place to play.”

On if he felt like the team played better than the score suggests:
“I would say so. I felt like the small things let the game slip away. Things we’re told to do every day, defensive habits we kind of lost. It caused the game to open up a bit, and we looked up and they were up 14 and took off from there.”

Kansas State Senior F Stephen Hurt
On if the team just needs to move on to the next game:
“That has pretty much been our team motto all year. Try to keep what’s in front of us, in front of us, and keep what’s behind us, behind us. Keep progressing. I feel like we did a good job, we just have to make the plays toward the end of the game. That’s been getting us every game. It’s still a work in progress, we have a long way to go. But everybody is focused and ready to go. We have a big game this weekend and we have to be ready for that.”

On what the biggest difference was without Kamau Stokes in the lineup:
“Obviously shooting. He’s one of our best shooters, he knocks down clutch shots. Carlbe (Ervin II) and Barry (Brown) stepped up, played a lot of point. Wesley (Iwundu), Justin (Edwards), all of our guards had to take more of role in bringing the ball up and handling the press. Everybody did a great job.”

On what led to posting a double-double:
“Just playing looser. Quit worrying about how I’m playing and just play, and do what the team needs.”

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