Jayhawks dispose of Texas Tech, 86-54

Kansas guard Kelly Oubre Jr. (12) delivers a dunk on a breakaway during the first half on Saturday, Jan.10, 2015 at Allen Fieldhouse.

• Box score

Saturday was one of those Groundhog Day moments at Allen Fieldhouse because everyone in attendance probably felt like they’d seen it before.

And, although the names and faces may have changed, they probably had.

Behind early effort and intensity and balanced scoring offensively, the Kansas University men’s basketball team put another beat-down on Texas Tech, this one by the score of 86-54.

KU’s starting five showed up early and made sure that the reserves and walk-ons down the bench would get more minutes than normal.

The Jayhawks (13-2 overall, 2-0 Big 12) jumped out to leads of 11-2, 29-11 and 42-25 by halftime and never took their foot off the pedal in the second half.

Perry Ellis (15), Kelly Oubre Jr. (14) and Frank Mason III (10) all reached double figures and Wayne Selden Jr. (8) and Jamari Traylor (7) were both a bucket away.

Cliff Alexander finished with 12 points and 5 rebounds to lead KU’s charge off the bench. Senior walk-on Christian Garrett also scored his first official points as a Jayhawk with a late bucket.

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

• The game turned when: Traylor put Texas Tech’s Justin Jamison on a poster with a strong slam dunk and foul over the 6-foot-9 junior early in the first half. Coming off of a monster game Wednesday at Baylor, Traylor’s confidence appeared sky high in this one and that dunk illustrated it better than anything. The three-point play put KU up 14-5 and answered any questions the Red Raiders had about whether they could hang around in this one.

• Offensive highlight: Pick any one of Oubre’s slam dunks in this one. There was the early alley-oop that got KU off to a great start, the break-away tomahawk in which he measured his steps at the free-throw line and then flushed it on the left side or the how-can-you-make-it-look-so-easy reverse slam early in the second half that doubled up Texas Tech at 50-25. Of course, if you don’t like any of those, there also were a couple of alley-oops to Alexander in the first half and another in the second half. Two of the three oops came from Devonté Graham, who returned to the floor after missing six games with an injured big toe.

• Defensive highlight: It didn’t actually lead to a bucket or anything immediate, but it showed, yet again, that Oubre is serious about playing “D.” On one possession in the first half, Oubre picked the pocket of a Texas Tech guard twice, first ripping it out near mid-court and then again after chasing him down to the other baseline. That kind of effort is contagious and no Jayhawks are giving it better than Oubre right now.

• Key stat: The Jayhawks were ultra-aggressive defensively in this one and, in addition to showing up on the boards, where KU out-rebounded Tech by double figures, it was abundantly clear by the 11-2 advantage in steals. Seven different Jayhawks recorded steals, with Selden leading the way with three.

• Up next: The Jayhawks return to Allen Fieldhouse on Tuesday for a match-up with new-look Oklahoma State at 6 p.m. The game will be shown on ESPN2.

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