Kansas Jayhawks ride huge second half to 74-55 win over Arizona State Sun Devils

The Kansas Jayhawks took down the Arizona State Sun Devils 74-55 on Wednesday night, overcoming a challenging first half with an overpowering second half.

KU trailed by six at halftime, but had surged ahead by five before Arizona State made its first shot of the second half. The biggest difference maker was the Jayhawks’ defense, which smothered the Sun Devils for the final 20 minutes.

Arizona State was held to just 13 points in the second, shooting 21.7% from the floor and a measly 1-of-11 from three-point range.

“Defensively, that’s about as turned up as I’ve seen a team for an entire half,” Kansas coach Bill Self said.

Offensively, senior guard Zeke Mayo led the charge for the Jayhawks, scoring a game-high 23 points on 8-of-14 shooting with five three pointers. Senior center Hunter Dickinson was the only other KU player to crack double figures in scoring, going just 5-of-15 from the field but tallying 15 points along with 12 rebounds for his 56th career double-double.

Kansas got some key contributions from another pair of transfers, too, including senior Shakeel Moore and junior Rylan Griffen. Self said Moore would have been his pick for MVP of the game after recording a game-high plus/minus of +25. As for Griffen, who scored nine points on Wednesday, Self said he’s getting progressively more confident in the Alabama transfer.

Alston Mason led Arizona State with 19 points in the losing effort, 15 of which came in the first half.

With the win, Kansas is now 2-1 in Big 12 play after dropping its first conference game against the West Virginia Mountaineers. The Jayhawks will be back in action this weekend when they visit the Cincinnati Bearcats. Cincinnati is still looking for its first Big 12 win of the year, starting the schedule 0-3.

That game will tip off at 1:00 p.m. central time on Saturday.

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