Kansas won this tournament in 1996 and No. 2 came with wins over St. John’s, Wake Forest and the Commodores. The rest of the game was mostly figuring out by how much UNLV would win, with Jones adding a punctuation in the last five minutes on a coast-to-coast dunk he couldn’t really explain. “If we play poorly in a 20-minute stretch against that, it’s going to be hard on us, and that’s what happened tonight”. They pressured us and we didn’t really move the ball.
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In the first half they shot 57.6 percent (19 of 33) from the field, 53.3 percent (8 of 15) from 3-point range and 86.7 percent (13 of 15) from the free throw line.
For now, the Bruins have to worry about the third-place game of the Maui Invitational Wednesdsay against Wake Forest. That didn’t change in the first half.
Lucas added 12 rebounds in the game, which (with his 13 points) gave him a double-double.
“Coming out at first, I felt like they had us rattled”.
From the onset, Mussini played one of his best games so far this season, which is a lot to say given how Mussini has been this season.
IN is 11-5 against the spread following a game that they didn’t cover the point spread, 4-0 against the spread against the Mountain West, and 1-5 against the spread following a win. Entering the game shooting 39 percent from the field and 34 percent on 3s, the Red Storm blew those numbers away: 59.3 percent from the field (35 of 59) and 52.6 percent on 3s (10 of 19). Then Kansas went out and dominated No. 19 Vanderbilt in the second half to claim the championship at the Maui Invitational, 70-63.
The other half of Vanderbilt’s twin towers is 7-1 Luke Kornet. Selden drilled 4 of 5 from three-point range, finished with 15 points and stream-lined his offense game, limiting his turnovers (one) and wasteful drives to the basket. “I feel very confident about this team”, McCaw said.
In many ways it was a game for St. John’s where they looked comfortable on and off the ball and also had a bit of confidence. The Jayhawks would claw back into the game, thanks to the hot shooting of Selden, who drilled three three-pointers during a 10-2 run. “But in the second half, Coach was just preaching we’ve got to bring energy and effort in the second half and play Runnin’ Rebel basketball, and that’s what we did”.
Vanderbilt (5-0) hit a 3-pointer 31 seconds into the game and never looked back. After falling 77-75 to UCLA in the first round Monday, the Rebels trailed by four at halftime to Division II tournament host Chaminade on Tuesday. Vanderbilt might have been overlooked with more historic programs in this event, but the Commodores showed what they could do with a dominant 92-55 win over St. John’s.
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In five days, Kansas will return to Allen Fieldhouse, and Diallo will make his season debut against Loyola (Maryland).
