Late for practice Friday, Julian Wright knew there’d be a penalty to pay Saturday night in Allen Fieldhouse.

“Coach tells us you’ve got to be on time,” said Wright, Kansas University’s sophomore forward, banished to the bench at the start of a game for the first time this season as punishment for being late for a Friday workout.

“It was not real late. Sometimes coach is early. Sometimes he’s a little late. It was my fault. I should have been there on time.”

Informed at a morning shootaround that Rodrick Stewart would be taking his place in Saturday’s starting lineup against Rhode Island, Wright didn’t brood.

Instead he erupted for a career-high 23 points in 31 minutes in an 80-69 victory over the Rams, surpassing his old career high of 21 points against Florida.

“On our team, it’s not who starts,” Wright said. “It’s producing when your number is called.”

Some might have accused Wright of showing up late for Saturday’s game. He scored four points with three rebounds in 13 minutes during the first half as KU led, 30-22, at the break.

But he erupted for 19 points off 8-of-10 shooting the second 20 minutes, including 12 points in the first six minutes of the half.

Wright had two length-of-the-floor layups to go with an assortment of shots inside and out.

“I was trying to run the floor. I got a lot of baskets in transition,” said Wright, who along with Brandon Rush (19 points) tallied 42 of KU’s 80 points. “They shot a lot of threes, and the floor was spread out. It was an open court. My teammates found me with some good passes.”

Freshman Sherron Collins, who started the second half in place of the flu-ridden Russell Robinson, had 11 points and five assists in his 16-minute second-half stint. He had two dishes to Wright for hoops in Wright’s early second-half surge. KU (12-2) finished the second half with 50 points.

“Julian was terrific. He did a great job of making shots and getting rebounds,” coach Bill Self said of Wright, who had eight rebounds on a night the Rams (7-7) outrebounded Kansas, 43-42, including a 32-20 advantage the first half.

“Sherron was great outside of one or two plays. I thought it was his best game.”

Of the sitting of Wright to start the game, Self indicated, “We had a time-management issue with three athletes the last couple of days: Julian, Darnell (Jackson) and Shady (Darrell Arthur),” Self said, indicating Jackson and Wright were late Friday and Arthur was tardy Saturday.

“They were all separate issues. It’s one thing we’ve tried to do, emphasize being responsible. Nothing major, just guys late.”

As far as assessing KU’s game, Self had to lament the Jayhawks once again not putting away a team that was wobbling on various occasions.

KU used a 13-0 run in a nine-minute stretch of the first half to grab a 30-14 lead. However, Rhode Island closed the half, 8-0, to cut it to eight by halftime.

Also, KU led by 17 (60-43) with 9:09 to play, but Rhode Island immediately cutting the gap to 11, at 60-49, at 8:14. It was still just a 10-point game with a minute left.

“It’s what I spent 15 minutes after the game talking to the team about. That was a 30-point game,” Self said. “We had chances to crack it open. Our guys are competitive. We’re not doing a good job of suffocating folks when we have the opportunity. We had the opportunity tonight and Thursday (in 63-43 win over Detroit). You let teams hang around, they can beat you.

“If you take away their free throws, offensive rebounds and our lack of killer instinct, that was as good as we have played in a long time,” Self concluded.

The Jayhawks will not play again until a week from today at South Carolina. Tipoff is 3:30 p.m. Central Time in Columbia, S.C.