Kansas Shuffle Wears Out Utah

Top 25

Jerod Haase has a reputation for bloodied noses and scraped knees from his pursuit of loose basketballs.

He lived up to it and more Saturday as No. 2 Kansas downed No. 8 Utah 79-68 at Kansas City, Mo., in the opener for both teams.

Kansas point guard Jacque Vaughn spent most of the second half on the bench with four fouls.

Haase picked up the slack by scoring a team-high 17 points, handing out four assists and getting four rebounds.

Kansas coach Roy Williams shuffled his players in and out, as is his custom, showing no hesitancy to play freshmen, and seemed to have the Utes worn down by the end.

“They are an extremely athletic, very deep team,” Utah coach Rick Majerus said. “They wear you down with their depth.”

Vaughn had 16 points for the Jayhawks, while Keith Van Horn scored 22 points to lead the Utes.

(6) UConn 86, (23) Indiana 52

Ray Allen scored 29 points and Connecticut’s defense kept every Hoosier but Brian Evans out of double figures in a rout at the Great Alaska Shootout in Anchorage.

Evans was Indiana’s only bright spot, leading all scorers with 30 points. Todd Lindeman added nine, but only one other Hoosier, Charlie Miller, was able to manage a basket until Robbie Eggers hit a layup with 9 minutes left.

In Friday night’s late game, Duke defeated Indiana 70-64 behind 19 points from Jeff Capel.

(9) Miss. St. 121, S.E. Louisiana 78

At Starkville, Miss., Erick Dampier scored 22 points as the Bulldogs tied a school scoring record in a season-opening victory over Southeastern Louisiana.

(11) W.Forest 75, Mt. St. Mary’s 62

In Winston-Salem, N.C., Tim Duncan had 21 points and 11 rebounds and Ricky Peral ignited a second-half run to lead the Demon Deacons to a victory over feisty Mount St. Mary’s of Maryland.

Wake Forest didn’t score for the first 5-1/2 minutes of the second half. When it did, the Demon Deacons put the game away behind Peral. He had 10 points in a 16-0 streak, sparking and ending the run with 3-pointers to give the Demon Deacons a 53-37 edge with 10:09 to go. They preserved the edge from the free-throw line, hitting 13 of 17 foul shots in the closing 4 minutes.

(13) Louisville 83, Va. Comm. 74

A late surge keyed by two field goals by Brian Kiser and four free throws from De Juan Wheat led the Cardinals to victory over Virginia Commonwealth at the Puerto Rico Shootout in Bayamon.

The victory moved Louisville, which survived a scare Friday from host American University, into Sunday’s title game against Auburn - an 82-71 winner over James Madison.

The victory was a costly one for the Cardinals, who lost freshman Eric Johnson to what could be a season-ending knee injury. Senior guard Tick Rogers also missed his second consecutive game with a broken hand.

(15) Missouri 86, Wofford 60

Kelly Thames scored 13 points to lead five Tigers in double figures as the Tigers whipped the Terriers in Columbia, Mo.

Missouri (1-0) led by nine at halftime and broke the game open with a 10-2 run to open the second half.

Seth Chadwick scored 22 points to lead the Terriers.

(18) Stanford 75, Rice 64

Brevin Knight scored 21 points, 10 during a decisive 19-6 second-half run, to lead Stanford to a victory over Rice in the championship game of the Fry’s Invitational tournament in Stanford.

Stanford (2-0) broke open a tight game after halftime with the 19-6 run in a span of 5:27 that made it 50-35.