Kansas center Hunter Dickinson (1) turns for a shot over Brown forward N'famara Dabo (45) during the first half on Sunday, Dec. 22, 2024 at Allen Fieldhouse. Photo by Nick Krug

Zeke Mayo didn’t miss a beat.

The Lawrence native had already scored in double digits before five minutes elapsed on Sunday afternoon, helping Kansas first fend off Brown as the Bears shot well early, then put them away as they went brutally cold from the floor late.

Fresh off a 26-point scoring performance against N.C. State in KU’s prior victory, Mayo reprised his starring role with 25 points on 10-for-15 shooting and eight rebounds, helping the Jayhawks enter their holiday break on a positive note with an 87-53 win.

“I think Zeke Mayo’s playing really well, and he’s so confident,” KU coach Bill Self said. “Those shots that he takes are so deep, but it doesn’t matter with him if they’re 18 feet or 24 feet, it really doesn’t matter, it’s the same percentage type (of) shot. I’m happy with him, and he’s showing people he’s got some game other than just shooting the ball too.”

Added forward KJ Adams: “It just connects everything together. When he’s shooting 3s like he is, it’s almost like, move out of the way and let Zeke work, and when you get to that point of the game and he’s hitting shots, it all clicks together. Everybody has their intensity up during the offensive end.”

Center Hunter Dickinson added 15 points and 13 rebounds and Adams scored all of his 10 after halftime, but the biggest aid to KU was Brown’s inability to score in the second half, when the Bears put up seven points in the first 11 minutes and ended up shooting 21.1% from the field and 18.8% from deep.

Neither team could finish particularly well at the rim, which was part of the reason Brown fell so far behind despite racking up 17 offensive rebounds.

“I just think we probably didn’t block anybody out, but we also didn’t attack the ball,” Self said. “We got to go after the ball better.”

The Jayhawks were not at full strength on Sunday. Reserve forward Zach Clemence did not dress to play due to what Self described as a significant pulled groin that could keep him out a while, while Rylan Griffen went to the locker room less than three minutes into the second half after getting hit in the head.

“He got a knot on his eye, or right above his eye,” Self said. “They made it sound like to me that it would be Rocky Balboa in ‘Rocky II,’ the way his face was, but he can still see out of it and everything. He’ll be fine. He’ll get some pity sympathy when he gets home and maybe get some more home cooking or whatever because of it, but that’s about it.”

Meanwhile, backup point guard Shakeel Moore played his most extended action of the season with 13 minutes as he works his way back from a long-term foot injury.

Kino Lilly Jr. led the Bears with 18 points as their only player to score in double digits.

Brown didn’t hit many shots initially but managed to tie the game at 7-7 on a 3-pointer by Lyndel Erold. Out of the under-16 timeout, though, the Jayhawks emerged on fire, adding nine straight points in just over a minute as Mayo continued his strong form from the N.C. State game with 10 points and four rebounds early.

“I felt like a ball magnet there early in the first half,” Mayo said of his rebounding, as he eventually drew near a double-double. “… I think I rebound pretty well for the guard position, missed a few, let them get the offensive rebound there in the second half, but I was going for it. Trust me, I knew how many I had, I was going for it, but fell short.”

The Bears ended the run just inside the 14-minute mark when Lilly drained a contested stepback 3-pointer, then responded to a floater by Moore with another 3 over David Coit.

AJ Lesburt Jr. scored six key points off the bench for Brown, which eventually tied the game with 8:29 to go in the first half on a 3-pointer by Jeremiah Jenkins after KU’s bench struggled on both ends of the floor for an extended stretch.

The Jayhawks picked up some speed with another run, this time a 12-3 stretch highlighted by a corner 3 by AJ Storr, but couldn’t extend it further due to a series of missed layups. Then Self called timeout in frustration after second-chance points on consecutive Brown possessions cut KU’s lead to 36-31.

However, the Bears missed three straight opportunities from deep (two for Lesburt, one for Aaron Cooley) and the Jayhawks scored on each possession prior to the half to make it an 11-point game at the break.

Adams got involved offensively in a substantive fashion for the first time after halftime, scoring back-to-back buckets to help KU extend its advantage and force an early timeout by Brown.

With Brown flatlining on offense, Mayo returned to his earlier level of play with back-to-back 3s in a 35-second span as the Jayhawks took their largest lead of the day at 63-38. By the time Brown ended a scoring drought of over four minutes with a floater by Lilly, KU had scored 13 straight points and led by more than 30.

KU brought in a lineup composed entirely of walk-ons with 1:47 remaining after Moore threw an alley-oop off the backboard to Flory Bidunga.

“You can just tell his energy,” Mayo said of Bidunga. “He’s a special, special athlete, and we need that in order to be successful this season. Obviously he struggled the past couple weeks, but he’s kept his head, he’s maintained his mental in order to come out here and play as well as he did today. He affected the game on both sides of the ball.”

The Jayhawks will embark on a brief holiday break before returning to practice on Thursday.

“Before the game, you know, you’re not supposed to think of it,” Adams said, “but now, yeah, I’m ready to go home a little bit, hug my sisters and my dad and just have some family time for a little bit before we come back.”

KU will then start Big 12 play at home against West Virginia on Dec. 31 at 1 p.m.

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