Cole Aldrich had 14 points and 10 rebounds, Tyshawn Taylor added 18 points and No. 1 Kansas overwhelmed Tennessee Tech for a 112-75 victory Friday night.
Kansas (5-0) took care of another overmatched opponent, building a 22-point halftime lead and shooting 61 percent to extend the nation’s longest home winning streak to 45 games. Xavier Henry had 15 points, Sherron Collins 12 and Aldrich shook off an off-night against Oakland to give Kansas a season-high in points.
Tennessee Tech (3-4) had the unenviable task of playing a No. 1 team and at Allen Fieldhouse for the first time on the same night. The Golden Eagles put together a nice run midway through the first half to delay the rout., only to be worn down by the bigger and faster Jayhawks.
Frank Davis used his quick release to hit four 3-pointers and score 23 points, and Zach Bailey added 16 for Tennessee Tech, which lost starting forward Bassey Inameti to a knee injury early in the second half.
Kansas has had little trouble during an easy stretch of the schedule that’s included Central Arkansas and Oakland — and will continue against Alcorn State on Wednesday — winning its past three games by at least 30 points each. Against Tennessee Tech, the Jayhawks had 29 assists on 40 field goals and blocked nine shots, improving to 16-0 against teams from the Ohio Valley Conference.
Tennessee Tech’s problems early came when Kansas trapped the high pick and roll, leading to turnovers and breakaways for the Jayhawks.
Kansas had five steals in the first eight minutes and the Golden Eagles had four of their first 11 shots blocked, leading to an 11-1 run that put the Jayhawks up 27-9. Normally, that kind of stretch would start the rout against a supposedly overmatched opponent.
But then the Jayhawks got sloppy, made a couple of silly passes, forgot to box out on defense.
Tennessee Tech scored eight straight points, the final two on Byron Pickens’ putback after three offensive rebounds, prompting Kansas coach Bill Self to call timeout and send four new players in.
The replacements held their ground, the starters returned three minutes later and THEN the rout was on.
Taylor flew in for an alley-oop, scored on a breakaway, hit a 3-pointer. Aldrich flew in for a rebound slam, powered inside, closed out the half with a putback jumper at the buzzer. By the time they were done, Kansas closed the half with a 13-1 run, heading into halftime with a comfortable 53-31 lead.
Kansas kept hitting to start off the second half, building a big enough lead that Self could only look at Taylor and laugh after the sophomore guard threw a what-were-you-thinking alley-oop over his shoulder that sailed over Henry and out of bounds. The Jayhawks had more spectacular plays than mistakes, though, shooting 21 of 30 in the second half.
