LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Kansas had just turned the ball over in the first half against Iowa State on Monday night when it suddenly popped loose again along the sideline, and Jayhawks guard Dajuan Harris Jr. made perhaps the hustle play of the game.
With a textbook baseball slide, Harris managed to corral the ball and throw it from his rear to teammate Hunter Dickinson, who in turn tossed the ball ahead to David Coit. After a couple of dribbles, Coit unloaded a pass from the midcourt line that KJ Adams leaped into the air and slammed for a dunk that seemed to shake the rafters of Allen Fieldhouse.
It was a play that underscored a rare fact about the Jayhawks at this point in the season.
They were playing with a sense of desperation.
Zeke Mayo scored 17 points and Dickinson added 14 points and nine rebounds as the No. 16 Jayhawks roared to a 69-52 win over eighth-ranked Iowa State. But it was the defense, which nearly shut down the Cyclones’ prolific backcourt, and the hustle on both ends of the floor that allowed Kansas to remain in the regular-season Big 12 title hunt.
Kansas (16-6) moved into a tie with Iowa State (17-5) at 7-4 in the league, 2 1/2 games back of Houston and Arizona.
“We talked about a mindset of just, you know, how much can we trust each other? And how much do we enjoy playing with each other?” Jayhawks coach Bill Self said. “I don’t think the emphasis was defense. I think the emphasis was, ‘If our head is right and we play with freedom, we can look pretty good at times,’ and that is what happened tonight.”
The Jayhawks held Iowa State to just 3-for-21 shooting from beyond the 3-point arc. And while the Cyclones only turned the ball over seven times, just about all of them — like that alley-oop dunk by Adams — turned into fast-break points.
“There’s probably not a place or a team or a program that does a better job than what Kansas does in transition,” Iowa State coach T.J. Otzelberger said. “If you have a turnover and how they turn it into points — we had very few turnovers but you feel like every one that we had turned into a layup or a dunk at the other end.”
While the Jayhawks, who blew a 19-point halftime lead at Baylor last weekend, thrived with their backs against the wall, Iowa State lost its third consecutive game while struggling without injured forward Milan Momcilovic in the lineup.
Momcilovic, who hurt his non-shooting hand last month, went through pregame warmups and could be back soon.
“He continues to do the things he needs,” Otzelberger said. “I do think he’ll be back in the next few weeks. But it’s a day-to-day situation. Today was the first step for him, feel what it feels like to go through the game warmup. But we’ll see. I don’t want to rush him back. I want it to be on the timeline that’s on his best interest and whenever that is he’ll be ready to go.”
Tamin Lipsey, Keshon Gilbert and Joshua Jefferson were held to 11 points apiece by Kansas, and it took a whole lot of shots for them to get there. The trio of Cyclones was 13 of 42 from the field and 2 of 14 from beyond the 3-point arc.
Meanwhile, leading scorer Curtis Jones was held to seven points on 3-for-11 shooting.
“It sucks for sure. Losing is not ideal,” Jones said, “but I mean, we did some things well. We got 17 offensive rebounds, only had seven turnovers. It’s just really shots weren’t falling. We clean up free throws, make a couple 3s, it’s a different game.”
