Jayhawks put away Kent State in second half

Kansas guard Kelly Oubre Jr. (12) celebrates before his teammates during a timeout in the first half on Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2014 at Allen Fieldhouse.

• Box score

The Kansas University men’s basketball team got what it needed on the offensive end from a handful of different players, but it was the Jayhawks’ second-half defense that carried them to a 78-62 victory over Kent State at Allen Fieldhouse on Tuesday night.

After watching the Golden Flashes hold the lead for a good chunk of the first half — in which the visitors shot 50 percent from the floor and 40 percent from three-point range — KU clamped down in the second half and limited Kent State to just 32 percent shooting and 29 points.

Kelly Oubre Jr. led the KU offense with a monster game. The freshman, who was in the starting lineup, finished with 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting.

Perry Ellis added 15 points and a team-best 8 rebounds, while Frank Mason III (14 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists) and Jamari Traylor (8 points) picked up a good chunk of the scoring slack in the second half.

The victory moved KU to 10-2 on the season and dropped Kent State to 8-4.

Here’s a quick look back at some of the action:

• The game turned when: Kansas opened the second half with a 5-0 run that featured another bucket by Oubre and free throws from Wayne Selden Jr. and Ellis. The five-point swing was not that impressive, but it did push KU’s lead to double digits for the first time. And in a game that featured a hard-fought first half, opening up an 11-point lead right out of the gate in the second half gave the Jayhawks a big-time advantage.

• Offensive highlight: There was the alley-oop to Ellis in the first half that got the crowd pretty fired up, but since KU misfired on a previous attempt, we’ll go with Traylor’s three-point play with 12:30 to play that pushed KU’s lead to 15 points. As Landen Lucas caught the ball on the right block, Traylor dipped down the paint to the rim. Lucas found him with a perfect pass and Traylor went up to hammer it home. As he did, though, he was fouled and instead of flailing about, he composed himself in mid-air, laid the ball off the glass softly and then hit the free throw to finish the play.

• Defensive highlight: Less than 90 seconds into the game, freshman Oubre showed he heard Bill Self’s message from the Temple loss loud and clear. As he extended his defense near mid-court and reached in and picked the pocket of a Kent State guard. After a scrum for the loose ball, Oubre gathered it, drove it hard to the rim, one-on-one, and finished the layup and got fouled. After the made bucket, Oubre threw his arms up and gestured to the Allen Fieldhouse crowd. The stellar defensive play jump-started a hot-shooting half for Oubre, who finished the first half with 16 points on 6-of-6 shooting from the floor.

• Key stat: The KU bigs did some work in this one. The Jayhawks out-rebounded the Golden Flashes 44-31 and also outscored Kent State 44-26 in the paint.

• Up next: The Jayhawks will close out the non-conference portion of the 2014-15 schedule on Sunday with a 3:30 p.m. tip-off against UNLV. The Runnin’ Rebels already boast a victory over Arizona and should pose a significant challenge for the Jayhawks. After that, KU heads to Waco, Texas, on Jan. 7 for the Big 12 opener against Baylor.

— See what people were saying about the game at the KUsports.com live blog.