{"id":111661,"date":"2026-01-25T03:39:38","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T03:39:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/111661\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T03:39:38","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T03:39:38","slug":"quick-recap-ku-sprints-away-from-k-state-late-for-86-62-win-in-manhattan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/111661\/","title":{"rendered":"Quick recap: KU sprints away from K-State late for 86-62 win in Manhattan"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n\t\t\t\t\tMen’s Basketball\t\t\t\t
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\n Kansas Athletics <\/p>\n

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Kansas forward Bryson Tiller looks to shoot inside against Kansas State on Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026, in Manhattan.<\/p>\n


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With high-volume scorer Darryn Peterson out with a sprained ankle, Kansas was always going to need a wide variety of players to step up at the offensive end on Saturday night in Manhattan.<\/p>\n

The Jayhawks got precisely what they needed, perhaps to an even greater degree than anyone could have anticipated. Elmarko Jackson reset his season high with 19 points, a resurgent Bryson Tiller scored 16 and the ever-reliable Melvin Council Jr. found himself in triple-double territory with 17 points, 12 assists and seven rebounds.<\/p>\n

Flory Bidunga led all KU players with 21, adding 10 points and three blocks, and Tre White (13) chipped in as well throughout the night, as KU strung together a 27-7 run when it mattered most to beat Kansas State, 86-62.<\/p>\n

K-State star guard P.J. Haggerty scored just five points in the first half, but the Wildcats kept the game close \u2014\u00a0a two-point margin at halftime \u2014\u00a0with 3-point shooting from the likes of Andrej Kostic (who made his first four 3s and finished with 12 points). Haggerty came alive in the second half and finished with 23 points, but KSU, without three starters due to injury, didn\u2019t get production basically anywhere else.<\/p>\n

The Jayhawks won a fourth consecutive league game for the first time since Feb. 28, 2023, and also beat KSU in Manhattan for the first time since 2022.<\/p>\n

In the opening minutes, Kansas dared the Wildcats\u2019 big men to fire away from beyond the arc. Taj Manning made just his third 3-pointer of the season and sixth of his three-year career to give KSU an early lead, but Dorin Buca and reserve Marcus Johnson (a more accomplished shooter) missed once each. The Jayhawks took the lead when White found himself wide open from deep, and then Council rattled in a floater to put KU up 9-6 at the first media timeout.<\/p>\n

Tiller had six points in his first shift on the floor. The Wildcats countered with Buca, who had six early offensive rebounds.<\/p>\n

With KU up 17-10 after another close-range bucket by Council, Kostic drilled 3-pointers on three consecutive possessions as part of a 9-2 run to tie the game for K-State. Kostic, a freshman from Serbia, matched his career high for points in a single game in that short time frame; he exceeded it with a fourth make in transition not long afterward.<\/p>\n

The Wildcats knocked down their seventh and eighth 3s in succession to retake the lead at 28-26, forcing a timeout by KU. The Jayhawks at the same juncture were just 1-for-2 from beyond the arc.<\/p>\n

After stagnating against a couple possessions of zone defense from K-State, they broke a scoring drought of nearly four minutes with a single free throw by Council. He then added an acrobatic layup the next time down to put KU back in front.<\/p>\n

Haggerty, one of the nation\u2019s leading scorers who had been held scoreless for the first 17 minutes and 48 seconds, got on the board with a pair of free throws after pushing the pace in transition.<\/p>\n

With KU holding a 33-31 lead, Bidunga and White engineered a well-played give-and-go to set up Bidunga for a fierce dunk. That kicked off a frenzy of scoring in the final minutes of the half, with Buca \u2014 a menace on the boards \u2014 putting back Haggerty\u2019s miss, another floater by Council, and then Haggerty avoiding the outstretched arm of Bidunga with a delicate layup.<\/p>\n

Council came up empty on another attempt at the rim, but C.J. Jones missed a good look at the buzzer to leave KU ahead 37-35 at the break.<\/p>\n

It was, by any statistical metric, a bizarre first half. The Wildcats made seven more 3s than the Jayhawks but did so without getting any from their usual top scorer, Haggerty, who had five points on 1-for-7 shooting. Kostic paced KSU with his rapid-fire dozen in the first half, but Tiller had 12 too on 5-for-5 shooting, his first game with as many points in seven weeks. Council also had 11 to go with five assists.<\/p>\n

In addition, with 10 boards, Buca accounted for the majority of his team\u2019s 19 rebounds, and no one had more than four of KU\u2019s 16.<\/p>\n

Much as he had against Colorado, and has for much of the season, White drew some hard-won fouls early in the second half to account for a lot of KU\u2019s scoring. The Jayhawks took their largest lead at eight points on a layup by Bidunga, then extended it further when the referees charged KSU coach Jerome Tang with a technical foul. <\/p>\n

Before an increasingly aggrieved Bramlage Stadium crowd, the Wildcats mustered a quick response with a tough finish by Haggerty and a deep 3 from David Castillo \u2014 only for Council to hit a 3 of his own when K-State went under a ball screen by Bidunga.<\/p>\n

Bidunga went to the bench after incurring his second and third fouls, one on defense and one on offense, in rapid succession.<\/p>\n

With the Jayhawks up six as the half approached its midway point, KU missed a series of 3s and allowed K-State to cut its deficit to 54-50 on a layup by Haggerty. White put in a close-range jumper off an inbounds pass, Jackson stepped back for a 3 and then Haggerty traveled to halt the Wildcats\u2019 momentum, but again KSU scored five straight of its own. That included a benefit to the Wildcats when an offensive foul on Manning for an elbow to Council\u2019s face was changed to a foul on Council because he broke through the cylinder \u2014 in other words, intruded on the space to which Manning was entitled. Haggerty followed that call up with a 3-pointer.<\/p>\n

The Jayhawks broke through with a high-speed drive by Council, who drew a foul and finished a layup as part of a three-point play that made it 67-55. That capped off an 8-0 run and prompted a timeout by Tang.<\/p>\n

That did not stem the tide, as Bidunga came away with back-to-back buckets inside after a lone free throw by Haggerty.<\/p>\n

In fact, K-State scored just twice over the final 4:13 as KU nearly doubled its margin from 13 to 24. A dunk by White with the shot clock turned off served as the exclamation point.<\/p>\n

The Jayhawks, who improved to 15-5 and 5-2 in league play, will have an open date before they host BYU on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. <\/p>\n

Box score<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"Author<\/p>\n

Written By Henry Greenstein<\/p>\n


\n Henry is the sports editor at the Lawrence Journal-World and KUsports.com, and serves as the KU beat writer while managing day-to-day sports coverage. He previously worked as a sports reporter at The Bakersfield Californian and is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis (B.A., Linguistics) and Arizona State University (M.A., Sports Journalism). Though a native of Los Angeles, he has frequently been told he does not give off “California vibes,” whatever that means. <\/p>\n

\u25bc<\/p>\n


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