Kansas basketball captures senior night win against Big 12 Conference-rival Kansas State
LAWRENCE — Kansas basketball’s 2023-24 season continued Tuesday with a 90-68 victory on senior night against Kansas State.
Here are a few takeaways from the No. 15 Jayhawks (22-8, 10-7 in Big 12) win in Big 12 Conference play against the Wildcats (17-13, 7-10 in Big 12):
Free throws weren’t hard to come by
There were stretches when neither team shot the ball very well, but it did not mean the two sides didn’t have other opportunities to score. At game’s end, Kansas shot 28-for-31 from the free-throw line. Kansas State shot 10-for-21 from the free-throw line.
Overall, the Jayhawks shot 28-for-62 from the field and 6-for-13 from behind the arc. The Wildcats shot 25-for-56 from the field and 8-for-24 from behind the arc. Kansas State never shot it well enough to test Kansas late.
Kevin McCullar Jr. guides Kansas to a win in his last game at Allen Fieldhouse
Last year, graduate senior guard Kevin McCullar Jr. had the option to come back to college for one more season. Tuesday, no matter what, represented McCullar’s last game at Allen Fieldhouse with Kansas. And in the star’s last home matchup, he helped deliver a win for the Jayhawks.
McCullar didn’t have the most effective night shooting the ball. But thanks in part to his trips to the free-throw line, he scored a team-high 19 points. He shot 5-for-14 from the field, 2-for-4 from behind the arc and 7-for-7 from the free-throw line. He also had three rebounds and three assists.
Kansas continues to win on senior night
Prior to Tuesday, Kansas had never lost a senior night game during the coach Bill Self era. There have been close calls, sure, but never a loss. And the Jayhawks kept that going in this rivalry matchup.
Senior center Hunter Dickinson delivered a double-double with 15 points and 20 rebounds. Graduate senior guard Nicolas Timberlake added 18 points. Junior forward KJ Adams Jr. added 16 points.
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Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas basketball left no doubt on senior night against Kansas State
