On Saturday afternoon in Lawrence, Kansas, two Big 12 teams clashed in an exciting rivalry matchup in the Sunflower Showdown.
Bill Self and the Kansas Jayhawks welcomed Jerome Tang and the Kansas State Wildcats to Allen Fieldhouse for the sixth game of the Big 12 regular season. After starting off with a 14-point run out of the gate, Kansas retained control of the matchup and took home an 84-74 win.
With that, here are the top three takeaways from Kansas’ 84-74 win over the Wildcats.
Big Three
Kansas’ trio of Hunter Dickinson, Zeke Mayo, and Dajuan Harris were lights out against their in-state rival, Kansas State, scoring 64 of the team’s 84 points in the contest. Dickinson led the way by going 12-19 from the field with 25 points and eight rebounds. Following Dickinson was Mayo, with 24 of his own, and Harris, who posted a stat line of 15 points, five rebounds, five assists, and two blocks.
The trio was virtually unstoppable in the matchup and played a massive part in the Jayhawks advancing to 4-2 in league play.
Bench Spark
While Kansas State’s offense had been lacking punch through the first 16 games of the season, the team found a spark in Kentucky transfer Ugonna Onyenso. The 7-foot, 247-pound big man entered the contest largely due to Hunter Dickinson’s size in the post but started showing up on the offensive end for Kansas State.
He had been averaging ten minutes per game in his third season of college basketball, but on Saturday, he saw some serious minutes for Jerome Tang’s crew. The Nigeria native recorded nine points and two boards, which included some highlight dunks to give his team some major momentum.
No Adams, No Problem
One notable absence in the contest was senior forward KJ Adams. The Texas native suffered a separated shoulder in the team’s loss to No. 2 Iowa State, which kept him sidelined in the Sunflower Showdown.
“He’ll play moving forward, but he won’t tomorrow,” Self said on Adams. “He had a separated shoulder that we feel at this time it’s still week to week. Knowing the injury and knowing how tough he is, a lot just depends on strength and range of motion. He’s already made progress, but he’ll be reevaluated again next week.”
With Adams sidelined, the Jayhawks inserted true freshman Flory Bidunga into the starting lineup, who recorded six points, nine rebounds, and two assists.
The Jayhawks head to Ft. Worth next on Wednesday, January 22nd to take on the TCU Horned Frogs.
