Kansas blows past Eastern
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Coach Kirk Earlywine saw no reason to analyze how No. 3 Kansas so easily overwhelmed his undersized, undermanned Eastern Washington Eagles 85-47 on Wednesday night.
“They had a bigger guy at every position and a better athlete at every position,” the first-year head coach said.
The mismatch was obvious from the start.
Darrell Arthur and Darnell Jackson dominated inside as the Jayhawks romped to an 8-0 start to the season. Eastern Washington (3-7) had only nine players at the start of the game and was reduced to eight with 16:40 remaining when guard Gary Gibson fouled out. Until Trey Gross got a bucket with about 5 minutes left to make it 69-37, only three Eagles had scored.
“We’ve only got nine players and six of those hadn’t played in a Division I game a month ago. That’s a big factor, our lack of experience,” Earlywine said.
The Jayhawks were outscored 6-0 in the final minutes of the first half and led only 37-23, to the obvious displeasure of coach Bill Self. Then the Big 12 favorites launched the second half on an 18-2 tear to open a 57-28 bulge over the visitors from the Big Sky Conference.
Kansas enjoyed a big size advantage and the 6-foot-8 Jackson had 17 points and nine rebounds while the 6-9 Arthur had 15 and six. Those two scored the Jayhawks’ first 15 points, all inside.
With the Jayhawks bringing Sasha Kaun and Cole Aldrich, both 6-11, off the bench, Kansas outrebounded the shorter Eagles 48-27.
“We had a height advantage so we just used that,” said Arthur. “It’s working pretty good, starting inside then going out. When we’re doing well in the post it just leaves the guards with open shots. I think if we do that and keep playing team ball, we’ll be pretty good.”
Adris DeLeon, a 5-11 guard, had 24 points for Eastern Washington on 8-of-11 shooting. Kellen Williams had 13 points. Gibson fouled out with five.
The Jayhawks also had 15 steals and 28 points off turnovers.
“I thought it was good for us to play out of a scramble situation,” Self said. “They wanted to slow it down, but we created some pace defensively. We did not score as much off of our defense as I thought we would, especially when we had 15 steals.”
DeLeon got an appreciative hand for the toughest shot of the night, a long, one-handed bucket he canned while falling down. He made the free throw for a three-point play that ended the Eagles’ flurry at the end of the half.
But the second half was all Kansas. Jackson’s bucket made it 63-33 and then Mario Chalmers gave the Jayhawks a 65-33 lead with 7:25 to go as cheerleaders with Orange Bowl decals sewn onto their skirts pranced up and down the baseline.
The Jayhawks’ football team is headed for the Orange Bowl, Kansas’ first major bowl appearance since 1969, and bowl officials introduced during a timeout got a thunderous ovation from a fan base that may be more excited about its eighth-ranked football team than a basketball team that’s always expected to contend for national honors.
“They just overwhelmed us tonight, especially to start the second half,” said Earlywine, who declined to make his players available to the media. “They cranked it up to start the second half and we didn’t do anything about it.”
Kansas equaled the highest-ranked team the Eagles have played and the Jayhawks were never threatened, outscoring the visitors 15-3 to start the game. Until Rod Stewart threw in a 3-pointer from the left wing to make it 18-5, Kansas scored every point inside without even trying to hit from the perimeter.
The non-conference season has been a rough learning experience for the Eagles. They also played No. 8 Washington State, losing 68-41.
“There’s probably less than 20 teams in the country that can look at (the Final Four) as a realistic goal and Kansas is certainly one of them,” Earlywine said. “We played one of those teams, Washington State, but Kansas is a whole different animal in terms of length and athletic ability and size and style of play.”
Kansas 85, E. Washington 47
Eastern Washington (3-7)- Brunell 1-5 0-0 3, Williams 5-9 0-0 13, Hinton 0-4 0-0 0, Gibson 2-4 0-0 5, Gross 1-7 0-0 2, DeLeon 8-11 5-5 24, Stanojevic 0-6 0-0 0, Loofburrow 0-0 0-0 0, Moore 0-6 0-2 0. Totals 17-52 5-7 47.
Kansas (8-0)- Arthur 7-12 0-0 15, Jackson 6-8 5-8 17, Robinson 1-4 6-6 9, Stewart 2-6 2-2 7, Chalmers 2-7 2-2 6, Teahan 2-2 0-0 5, Case 0-2 0-0 0, Bechard 0-1 0-0 0, Reed 1-3 0-0 2, Buford 0-1 0-0 0, Kaun 2-3 3-4 7, Rush 4-11 0-1 9, Witherspoon 0-0 0-0 0, Aldrich 2-4 2-2 6, Kleinmann 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 30-66 20-25 85.
Halftime—Kansas 37-23. 3-Point Goals—Eastern Washington 8-26 (DeLeon 3-5, Williams 3-6, Gibson 1-2, Brunell 1-4, Hinton 0-1, Gross 0-3, Stanojevic 0-5), Kansas 5-17 (Arthur 1-1, Stewart 1-1, Teahan 1-1, Robinson 1-3, Rush 1-3, Bechard 0-1, Case 0-1, Reed 0-2, Chalmers 0-4). Fouled Out—Gibson. Rebounds—Eastern Washington 27 (Williams 11), Kansas 48 (Rush 10). Assists—Eastern Washington 5 (DeLeon 2), Kansas 20 (Chalmers 8). Total Fouls—Eastern Washington 17, Kansas 15. A—16,300.