Hunter Dickinson finished with 19 points and nine rebounds and No. 17 Kansas beat the Colorado Buffaloes 71-59 in Lawrence, Kan., on Tuesday night.
Zeke Mayo had 13 points and eight rebounds, and Dajuan Harris and KJ Adams scored 10 points apiece for the Jayhawks (17-7, 8-5 Big 12).
Sebastian Rancik had 19 points and nine rebounds, Bangot Dak contributed 11 points and Elijah Malone scored 10 for plummeting Colorado (9-15, 0-13), which has lost 13 in a row. It is the Buffaloes’ worst start to a conference season since they went 0-14 in the Big 8 in the 1985-86 season.
Colorado trailed by 14 at halftime but came out strong after the break. Andrej Jakimovski hit two 3-pointers, Dak made a layup and Rancik drained a jumper during an opening 10-2 run.
Minutes later, Dickinson made a layup and David Coit hit from deep to stretch the lead to 50-39, but the Buffaloes responded with the next six points.
The Jayhawks pushed their lead to 60-50 with 7:51 left, and they were able to maintain the advantage for the next four minutes. Rancik cut it to 64-56 with a layup off a miss, but Mayo hit a 3-pointer.
Colorado’s Julian Hammond III missed on the other end, and Adams hit a short jumper off an inbounds play that gave Kansas a 69-56 lead with 1:39 left.
Jakimovski missed a 3-pointer and Mayo hit two free throws with 1:12 left to seal the win.
The game was close through most of the first half, and Colorado led 12-10 at one point, but the Jayhawks took control later in the half when the Buffaloes went nearly seven minutes without a field goal.
With Kansas leading 25-19, Adams made a layup and fed Dickinson for a dunk. Adams also dunked, Mayo hit a jumper and Dickinson converted a three-point play that made it 36-22 with 3:14 left.
Hammond broke the drought with a layup with 1:44 left, but Dickinson’s late tip-in gave the Jayhawks a 40-26 lead at intermission.
–Field Level Media
