Courtesy of Kansas Athletics
AMES, Iowa – Four players scored in double figures Tuesday night as the No. 10/10 Kansas Jayhawks outlasted No. 20/22 Iowa State, 70-61, at Hilton Coliseum.
Dajuan Harris tied his career high with 14 points, and set a new career best in assists with eight, while David McCormack also had 14 points and Christian Braun and Jalen Wilson added 13 apiece.
The 10th-ranked Jayhawks improved to 18-3 on the season and 7-1 in the Big 12 to stay atop the conference standings. Iowa State dropped to 16-6 and 3-6 in league play.
Kansas earned the road win despite not having Ochai Agbaji or Remy Martin in the lineup. Instead, Harris logged 38 minutes and added four steals to his 14 points and eight assists, while guard Joseph Yesufu played a season-high 23 minutes, contributing seven points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals in the victory.
The Jayhawks led wire-to-wire in Tuesday’s win, officially leading for 39 minutes and 22 seconds and never trailing. Kansas outrebounded Iowa State 37-26 and shot 56 percent from the floor, while Iowa State shot 41.
Kansas held at least a four-point advantage nearly the entire first half. The only time Iowa State got it to less than four after the opening three minutes came at the 12:14 mark when Iowa State cut it to 13-10. But Harris scored off a turnover soon after to extend it back to five. The Cyclones cut it to two with 3:09 to play in the half, but again Kansas responded, this time with a dunk from McCormack to push it back to four.
Harris scored the final bucket of the half to give Kansas a 30-24 lead at the break.
Iowa State scored the first basket of the second half, but Kansas immediately came back with two straight buckets to extend the lead to eight. Later in the half, Iowa State cut it to five with 13:19 to play, but that was as close as the home team would get the rest of the way.
The Jayhawks extended their lead to as many as 14 points in the second and had command throughout the game’s second 20 minutes.
McCormack led the way with 14 rebounds to go with his 14 points. The 14-point, 14-rebound performance was McCormack’s fifth double-double of the season and second in his last four games. He also had 11 points and 15 rebounds at Kansas State on Jan. 22.
Kansas had 19 assists on 28 made buckets and were aggressive all night on defense, forcing 12 steals.
The Jayhawks will return to action Saturday at home against No. 8 Baylor at 3 p.m., on ESPN.
