Kansas forward KJ Adams Jr. (24) flexes after a bucket by the Jayhawks against Arizona State during the second half on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025 at Allen Fieldhouse. Photo by Nick Krug

The Kansas men’s basketball team simply refuses to lose consecutive games at Allen Fieldhouse.

After facing a six-point halftime deficit and staring down the barrel of back-to-back home losses for the first time since 1989, the Jayhawks mustered a new level of defensive intensity after the break, opening the second half with a 20-3 run and escaping Arizona State, 74-55, on Wednesday night.

Zeke Mayo led KU with 23 points, Hunter Dickinson added 15 to go with 12 rebounds and KU held ASU to just 13 points in the second half, aided by key defensive minutes from players like Shakeel Moore and Rylan Griffen. Point guard Dajuan Harris Jr. tallied nine points and seven assists.

Blue Valley Northwest product Alston Mason scored a team-high 19 points for ASU, but 15 came before halftime.

ASU looked scattered in the opening minutes, committing a pair of early turnovers but settling in after breaking the shutout on a 3-pointer by Adam Miller. The Sun Devils briefly took a 7-6 lead before Mayo sent a defender flying with a pump fake and connected from deep, then Dajuan Harris Jr. hit another 3 at the end of the shot clock.

BJ Freeman shone for the Sun Devils early with seven of their first 12 points and 10 of their first 18 in what rapidly became a back-and-forth contest. The Jayhawks trailed 22-21 when Harris picked Jayden Quaintance’s pocket in the post and then bounce-passed to KJ Adams for a thunderous transition dunk. However, turnovers by David Coit and AJ Storr allowed ASU to take a three-point lead for the first time, then Storr coughed it up again to set up a 3-pointer by Mason that made it 33-27 in the Sun Devils’ favor with 4:34 left in the first half.

Another 3 by Mayo, who was a perfect 4-for-4 from the field in the half, helped KU keep pace, but its defense was rather porous in the final minutes, and Harris got called for a foul on Mason’s attempt at a stepback 3 with 1.6 seconds remaining. Mason made all three free throws to give ASU a six-point lead at the break.

Offense was a struggle for both teams out of halftime, but particularly for the Sun Devils. With KU trailing 42-40, Mayo committed a rare pair of blunders, missing a floater at the rim and then stepping out of bounds while lining up a shot from beyond the arc. After a long string of misses, with ASU still looking for its first basket of the half, Dickinson threw down a left-handed dunk, was fouled and finished a three-point play to put the Jayhawks ahead, before the defense forced a shot-clock violation and an offensive foul.

By the time ASU scored, on a second-chance 3-pointer by Miller, KU had recorded 11 straight points and more than seven minutes had elapsed.

The Jayhawks reaped the rewards of full-court pressure when Moore recorded steals on back-to-back possessions, setting up transition dunks for himself and Griffen, and giving KU its largest lead of the night at 53-45 with 12 minutes to go. After a timeout, Griffen hit a corner 3 when a pair of offensive rebounds preserved possession for KU.

ASU did not get back within single digits for the final nine minutes and 54 seconds. Mayo finished the Sun Devils off with back-to-back 3-pointers with just over a minute remaining.

The Jayhawks will next travel to Cincinnati, which lost 68-48 at Baylor on Tuesday, for their first road matchup with the Bearcats in 60 years. Tipoff is set for 1 p.m. Central Time at Fifth Third Arena.

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