Kevin McCullar scored nearly half of Kansas’ points as the No. 2 Jayhawks pulled away from Yale 75-60 Friday night in Lawrence, Kan.
McCullar had 20 of his career-high 34 points in the second half after Kansas (11-1) trailed by a point at intermission.
McCullar was 11-of-18 from the field, including 4-of-7 from 3-point range and 8-of-8 from the line. Kansas also got 13 points from Nicolas Timberlake and 10 points from Dajuan Harris Jr. Hunter Dickinson had eight points and 10 rebounds for the Jayhawks.
Yale (7-6) was led by 13 points apiece from Bez Mbeng and August Mahoney. Danny Wolf added 11 points and six rebounds for the Bulldogs.
Kansas stayed close in the early parts of the second half but couldn’t grab the lead until Dickinson scored on a layup with 11:36 left. That gave Kansas a 43-42 lead, its first lead since 11-10.
That was part of a 10-1 run for the Jayhawks, who held Yale without a field goal for 6:48. Kansas eventually extended the lead to as many as 18 points.
It was anyone’s game to win for most of the first 30 minutes of action.
A 10-0 run gave Yale a 25-14 lead with 6:21 left in the half. Wolf, a 7-footer, capped that spurt with a 3-pointer.
The Bulldogs held Kansas, the nation’s seventh best shooting team (51.8 percent) coming in, to just 41.4 percent shooting in the first half, and much of the success from the field came late in the half. They did it with almost perfect defense; Yale didn’t pick up its second foul until the 5:09 mark.
Kansas used a quick 4-0 spurt to get back into the game and closed the half on an 18-8 run to trail just 33-32 at halftime. Yale led for 15:21 of the first half.
Yale was led by Mahoney and John Poulakidas with eight points apiece, and Wolf added seven points. McCullar led all scorers with 14 points for Kansas.
–Field Level Media