OMAHA, Neb. — Late into the second half of No. 1 Kansas basketball’s matchup against Creighton on Wednesday night, the Bluejays faithful chanted for their squad, as “C-U” boomed throughout CHI Health Center.
It was fitting, as a chant of ‘see you’ could have applied, since the game was all but over.
The Kansas men’s basketball team, which was down a rotation player, never looked the part of its ranking on Wednesday night. Instead, the Jayhawks looked at times lethargic and at other points shell-shocked by Creighton’s onslaught.
The Jayhawks never led in a 76-63 defeat. KU guard Dajuan Harris had 15 points, but he took 21 shots. Transfer guards Zeke Mayo and AJ Storr added 12 points apiece.
KU’s Rylan Griffen missed the game due to the flu. He is averaging 8.1 points on 34.5% 3-point shooting this season.
The Bluejays (6-3) led 41-31 at half after shooting a blistering 50% on 3-pointers. Kansas (7-1) cut the lead to one point (41-40) early in the second half, but Creighton responded with a 10-0 run.
After a few calls that didn’t go the Jayhawks’ way, Kansas coach Bill Self protested and was hit with a technical foul. KU would never recover, trailing by as many as 17 points.
Up next: The Jayhawks travel to Columbia to face rival Missouri on Sunday.
Until then, here are three takeaways from Wednesday night’s game…
Kansas struggles with Creighton’s 3-point shooting
Before Wednesday’s game, Self proclaimed Creighton was a much better shooting team than the percentages would’ve shown.
The Bluejays were shooting 31.4% on 3-pointers before the matchup against Kansas.
Well, Self was spot on.
Creighton shot 50% (7 for 14) on 3-pointers in the first half. By comparison, KU shot 5 for 14 (35.7%) from deep.
It felt like no matter how good KU’s defense was, the ball was going through the net for the Bluejays. Creighton ended the night shooting 41.4% from deep. Meanwhile, KU shot 34.8% on 3-pointers.
Dickinson loses battle of the bigs
The most anticipated matchup in this game was between big men Hunter Dickinsonand Ryan Kalkbrenner.
