MANHATTAN, Kan. \u2014 Behind a pair of dominant double-doubles and a late-game scoring surge, No. 19 Kansas pulled away from rivals Kansas State for an 86-62 victory in the Dillons Sunflower Showdown on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
The Jayhawks (15-5, 5-2 Big 12) relied on a balanced attack with five players scoring in double figures to snap a three-game losing streak at Bramlage Coliseum.<\/p>\n
Bidunga and Council Lead the Charge<\/p>\n
The interior presence of Flory Bidunga proved too much for the Wildcats to handle. Bidunga finished with a team-high 21 points and 10 rebounds. His performance was punctuated by a thunderous alley-oop dunk during a decisive 15-3 run late in the second half that effectively silenced the home crowd.<\/p>\n
Complementing the inside game, Melvin Council Jr. orchestrated the offense with precision, recording 17 points and a career-high 12 assists. Freshman Bryson Tiller added 16 points to the Jayhawks\u2019 tally.<\/p>\n
A Tale of Two Halves<\/p>\n
The first half was a back-and-forth affair, thanks in large part to Kansas State\u2019s Andrej Kostic. The Serbian freshman, seeing increased minutes, ignited the Wildcats by sinking four three-pointers in a four-minute span, keeping Kansas State within two points at halftime (37-35).<\/p>\n
In the second half, P.J. Haggerty took over for the Wildcats (10-10, 1-6), scoring 18 of his game-high 23 points. A Haggerty triple with 7:50 remaining cut the Kansas lead to just 59-55, threatening an upset.<\/p>\n
The Final Push<\/p>\n
The Jayhawks responded to the pressure with an elite defensive stand and an offensive explosion, closing the game on a 27-7 run. Kansas has now won 16 of the last 20 matchups in this historic rivalry, the second-longest active series in Division I men\u2019s basketball.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe stayed composed when they made their run,\u201d the Jayhawks\u2019 performance suggested. \u201cThe ball movement in the final eight minutes was the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n
Looking Ahead<\/p>\n
Kansas returns home to Lawrence with momentum on their side, riding a four-game winning streak. They are set to host No. 13 BYU at Allen Fieldhouse next Saturday in a high-stakes Big 12 clash.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MANHATTAN, Kan. \u2014 Behind a pair of dominant double-doubles and a late-game scoring surge, No. 19 Kansas pulled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112001,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-112000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}