Kohl Rosario scored 16 points and grabbed five rebounds, and No. 25 Kansas pulled away for a 77-46 win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Tuesday night in Lawrence, Kan.
Flory Bidunga added 12 points and eight rebounds for Kansas (2-1), which bounced back from a loss on the road against North Carolina in its previous game. Bryson Tiller recorded 11 points and eight rebounds off the bench, and Tre White finished with 11 points and six boards.
Franck Yetna scored 11 points off the bench to lead Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (1-3). Sheldon Williams contributed eight points for the Islanders, and Kobi Pearson and Mason Gibson finished with five points apiece.
Kansas shot 54 percent (27 of 50) from the field and 34.8 percent (8 of 23) from 3-point range. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi shot 32.2 percent (19 of 59) overall and only 7.1 percent (1 of 14) from beyond the arc.
Kansas led by as many as 37 points in the second half. Jayden Dawson made a layup off an assist from Nginyu Ngala to put the Jayhawks on top 77-40 with 2:46 to go.
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi closed the game on a 6-0 run that included a layup by Leo Torbor, a jump shot by Daniel Michelini-Jackson and a dunk by Cedric Horton.
The Jayhawks jumped to a 38-18 lead at the half.
Bidunga opened the scoring with a dunk and Rosario followed with back-to-back dunks to give Kansas a 6-0 lead in the first three-plus minutes. Bidunga followed with a layup several minutes later to boost the Jayhawks’ lead to 10-2 with 14:41 remaining in the first half.
The Islanders tried to compete but struggled to keep pace with the Jayhawks. Yetna made a dunk to cut Texas A&M-Corpus Christi’s deficit to 17-8 with 9:23 left in the half.
Kansas responded with a 7-0 run to increase its lead to 24-8 with 7:33 remaining. Rosario punctuated the run with a 3-pointer, and the Jayhawks held firm the rest of the way.
–Field Level Media
