No. 1 seed Kansas Cruises past Howard, 96-68, in NCAA First Round

Thursday, March 16

Des Moines, Iowa

01:00 PM

University of Kansas

(16) Howard

No. 1 seed Kansas Cruises past Howard, 96-68, in NCAA First Round

3/16/2023 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball

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DES MOINES, Iowa – All five Jayhawks scored in double-figures, led by 20 points from redshirt junior Jalen Wilson, as No. 1 seed Kansas defeated No. 16 seed Howard, 96-68, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Des Moines, Iowa on Thursday.

Kansas improved to 28-7 on the season, winning their 16th-straight first round game. The defending National Champions improved to 46-13 all-time as the No. 1 seed and 17-0 against the No. 16 seed.

Freshman Gradey Dick scored 19 points on 7-of-13 from the field, paired with 11 rebounds. Dick’s double-double marked the first of his career, while he is the first KU freshman to record a double-double in a tournament game since March 25, 2017, when Josh Jackson scored 10 points and 12 rebounds against Oregon.

Paired with Wilson and Dick, all five Jayhawks scored in double-figures for the seventh time this season, including Wilson’s 20 points, Dick’s 19 points, K.J. Adams’ 13 points, Dajuan Harris’ 11 points and Kevin McCullar’s 10 points.

TODO_GALLERY_SLIDER

For Howard, Shy Odom led the Bison with 15 points and eight rebounds. The Bison ended their season at 22-13, in the program’s first tournament appearance since 1992.

Howard took the lead five times in the first half, but the Jayhawks always had an answer. Kansas went on a 13-3 run over the final five minutes of the first half to take a 50-37 lead into halftime.

In the second half, Kansas extended its lead by outscoring the Bison 46-31 over the final 20 minutes of play, to finish off Howard, 96-68. Kansas’ 96 points scored were the most in a NCAA Tournament game since 2017, when Kansas scored 98 points in a 98-66 win over Purdue.

Kansas will now set its sights to the second round of the NCAA Tournament and will play the winner of No. 8 seed Arkansas (20-13) and No. 9 seed Illinois (20-12).