The 1,000th game at Allen Fieldhouse was one to remember for Kansas, as the No. 14-ranked Jayhawks earned their fifth straight win with a 90-82 victory over No. 13 BYU.
“I thought it was a great day. It was perfect,” Kansas coach Bill Self told reporters after the game. “I thought that (ESPN’s ‘College Gameday’ live broadcast from the arena) was a great infomercial for our university and our athletic department. I thought it was great, well attended, and a lot of energy. The crowd certainly was everything that ‘Gameday’ said it would be, and more.
“We played great for (the first) 20 minutes. That’s the best we played all year long. Then we just kind of had to piece it together to end it, but great day. Proud of our guys.”
The Jayhawks scored 53 points in the first half alone, shooting an outrageous 9 of 12 from 3-point range to put the Cougars in a 20-point halftime hole.
Darryn Peterson, the projected No. 1 selection in this summer’s NBA draft, scored 18 of Kansas’ first half points on his own.
“We took care of it, we took good shots. We got paint touches. The ball moved, and the basket got big for everybody,” Self said of the first half success.
“To go 9 of 12 from 3, obviously, that’s great, but it’s not real. But even if we’d gone 6 of 12, we still played our butts off the first half.”
Early in the second half, however, Peterson left the game due to cramping. In his absence, BYU heated up and cut the deficit to as little as four points, but Kansas held on to secure the 8-point win.
“We were exhausted. We were exhausted on both ends,” Self said. “… There was so much energy in the first half, it’s almost like you run on adrenaline so long, and then the adrenaline ran out and switched jerseys.
“We were a tired team, just trying to get to the finish line. We had no depth, so I give (BYU) credit, they were fresher.”
BYU’s AJ Dybantsa — Peterson’s primary competition for the top draft selection — scored 17 points on 6 of 12 shooting, but the Jayhawks’ defensive effort largely contained him to make his life difficult.
“He can get to a spot. You’re not going to block a shot. You just gotta contest it, and he’s going to make one out of two,” Self said of Dybantsa.
“Then you do contest it, limit his good touches and try to shrink the floor where he can’t get his shoulders past you, which until late we did a really good job of that.”
