Mar 19, 2016; Des Moines, IA, USA; Kansas Jayhawks forward Perry Ellis (34) reacts after a play in the first half against the Connecticut Huskies during the second round of the 2016 NCAA Tournament at Wells Fargo Arena.
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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Svi Mykhailiuk scored a career-high 23 points, Perry Ellis added 21 and top-seeded Kansas throttled Austin Peay 105-79 on Thursday in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. Kansas next plays the victor of Sunday’s Hawaii-Maryland game.
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That type of depth makes this team such a beast to prepare for and game plan against and is a big reason the Jayhawks (32-4) are still playing into the second weekend of this year’s tourney. Ultimately two long scoring droughts in the first half were the Huskies’ undoing. “I just looked down the roster, and everybody’s eyes before the game were focused”. Kansas has the horses to withstand a run by CT in this game and the Jayhawks rank sixth-best in the country in defensive efficiency rankings.
But opportunity welcomes Austin Peay (18-17) and coach Dave Loos after the Ohio Valley Conference tournament champions won four games in four nights against teams it had lost to during the regular season. The Jayhawks have won 15 consecutive games, 10 against teams in the NCAA Tournament.
Ellis notched his fourth 20 point game over his last five games.
“Kansas is 12-3 ATS in its last 15 games “.
The Jayhawks blitzed the Huskies for a 73-61 win on Saturday night, solidifying their role as the favorites to win the tournament after the unlikely departure of Michigan State. Chris Horton leads in points with 18.9 and in rebounds with 12.0 while Khalil Davis leads in assists.
“We played great in the first half”, Self said.
The players were certainly excited to earn a win and continue moving on.
A little more than a minute later, Ron Baker’s three with 10:25 left gave Wichita State a one-point lead, but the coach had sent a message with his tirade and the Hurricanes regrouped behind Rodriguez. Poeltl finished with five points and four rebounds, while Sabonis had 19 and 10 for his 22nd double-double of the season.
“With point guards like that, it’s easy”. The 44 points was the most UConn had allowed in a half all year. As has already been proven, the so-called higher-seeded teams are falling out the NCAA Tournament early, so Kansas will have to be up for the fight when they take on UConn.
Despite a 20-point deficit at halftime, UConn came out firing in the second half, cutting the deficit to 13 points midway through the half.
Duke Ethridge had 16 points and Justin Tuoyo scored 12 points for the No. 12 seed Mocs (29-6), whose stellar first season under young coach Matt McCall came to a screeching end.
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Stony Brook opened the game with an epic stretch of bad shooting, hitting just three baskets in 27 tries with 14 straight misses at one point.
