PROVO — On the finish of the evening, the Kansas males’s basketball group will return to Lawrence Regional Airport with as many minutes led in a basketball sport within the Beehive State as when the Jayhawks started their two-game road trip.
Richie Saunders erupted for 22 factors with three assists and 4 3-pointers, and BYU shot 53% from the sphere in a wire-to-wire rout of the Jayhawks in a 91-57 win in entrance of a standing-room-only crowd of 17,978 followers on the Marriott Heart.
Trevin Knell added 15 factors, eight rebounds and 4 assists for the Cougars (18-7, 9-6 Large 12), and Mawot Magazine scored 13 factors on 5-of-6 taking pictures for a BYU squad that shot 55.9% from the perimeter.
Dallin Corridor provided 10 factors and eight assists, and Keba Keita added 10 factors, 9 rebounds, two steals and two thunderous blocks that blew the roof off the gymnasium. Was it the very best sport — or no less than, most full — of the season for BYU, which won its third straight and seventh within the final 9 video games?
“I feel so,” BYU coach Kevin Younger mentioned. “And we picked an excellent evening to do it.”
Boy, did they.
The win places the Cougars alone in fifth place within the Large 12 Convention with 5 video games remaining — and three of them on the street, together with Saturday at No. 19 Arizona (8 p.m. MST, ESPN). There’s additionally that tough street spot March 4 at No. 8 Iowa State.
So Tuesday’s win was vital for a lot of causes.
“I really feel like that is only a continuation of the previous couple of video games,” mentioned Knell, who shot 4-of-7 from 3-point vary — considered one of 4 gamers with a number of triples amongst BYU’s 14 makes. “That is simply one other group win that we’re stacking; every single day in apply, we’re competing and it is exhibiting out on the court docket.
“It is an amazing group win, and I really feel prefer it was a press release.”
The Jayhawks return to Lawrence, Kansas, having not led for 40 consecutive minutes en path to losses in three of their final 4 video games and 4 of their final six. It is the primary time Kansas has misplaced by no less than 30 factors to an unranked opponent because the Related Press first started rating groups in 1938, in response to the AP.
Hunter Dickinson had 12 factors and 14 rebounds for Kansas (17-9, 8-7 Large 12), which misplaced back-to-back video games for the primary time all yr.
“They whooped us immediately,” Dickinson mentioned. “They beat us by 36; I do not assume there’s something private about that. That is only one group that got here out to play, and one group did not.”
BYU could not have began significantly better, with an 8-0 bounce that included the 215th profession 3-pointer and 1,000th level by Knell.
Magazine had 7 factors within the first seven minutes, capping a 14-2 run to place the Cougars up 22-7 and compelled Kansas coach Invoice Self to make use of his second timeout.
“I assumed we have been terrible, and I assumed they have been nice. I feel BYU may’ve overwhelmed anyone tonight,” mentioned Self, whose 34-point loss was one of many worst since he was named head coach in 2003 and the third-worst defeat in this system’s storied historical past. “They have been nice — and we did not do something to make them play lower than nice.
“Our offense stunk, however that wasn’t it,” he added. “We could not cease them, or get any momentum to cease them.”
But it surely did not get significantly better.
Saunders poured in 14 factors on an ideal 5-for-5 taking pictures, together with 4 3-pointers, and Knell canned 4 triples for 13 factors because the Cougars shot 46.9% from the sphere with 10 3-pointers en path to a 46-26 halftime benefit.
BYU led by as a lot as 38 factors halfway within the second half, and by no means took its foot off the gasoline. The Cougars out-rebounded the Jayhawks 43-33, scored 15 factors off 15 turnovers and assisted on 24-of-34 made discipline objectives together with 5 assists from Egor Demin.
“I feel we’re simply hitting our stride proper now on the proper time of the yr, taking part in our greatest model of basketball,” Corridor mentioned. “We’re much less involved with the opponent in entrance of us, and extra involved with executing our aspect of issues: the sport plan on either side. I assumed we did a very good job of that. We’re hitting our stride, and attempting to place the nation on discover.”
