The Kansas men’s basketball team will enter its regular season-ending gauntlet of games against No. 15 Texas Tech, No. 12 Texas and No. 2 Baylor on a four-game winning streak.
The No. 23 Jayhawks, who returned to the AP Top 25 poll on Monday after beating Oklahoma State once and Iowa State twice in a six-day span, upended Kansas State, 59-41, on Wednesday night at Bramlage Coliseum in Manhattan, Kan.
Marcus Garrett scored 14 points and Jalen Wilson added 11 points and nine rebounds for the Jayhawks (16-7, 10-5 Big 12), who defeated K-State for the fifth straight time and also extended K-State’s losing streak to 13 games.
Dajuan Gordon scored 12 points for the Wildcats (5-18, 1-13). K-State’s 41 points were the second-lowest total against KU in a Big 12 game in the 18-year Bill Self era. Nebraska scored 39 in 2007.
Ochai Agbaji had nine points and five rebounds and Dajuan Harris made three steals for KU, which won its 10th league game for the 27th consecutive year. The 27-year streak with 10-plus league wins is the longest active streak in the country. Gonzaga, which is 11-0 in the West Coast Conference this season, has won 10 or more conference games 24 straight seasons. KU has won 10 conference games 57 times overall.
The Jayhawks and Wildcats were miserable offensively in the first half.
Kansas hit 1 of 7 3s to K-State’s 0 of 11 and the Jayhawks took a 26-17 lead into halftime. KU finished 4 of 16 from 3; K-State 3 of 24.
Wilson scored 11 of KU’s 26 points in the half on 3-of-5 shooting (4 of 6 free throws). He also had six rebounds. Gordon, who had missed the past four games because of injury, had 10 points on 5-of-9 shooting (0 of 4 3s) for K-State. Davion Bradford had five rebounds in the half. KU hit 8 of 20 shots (40%), while KSU hit 8 of 28 shots for 28.6%.
The teams remained cold in the second half, KU finally scoring six consecutive points (two from Mitch Lightfoot, Bryce Thompson and Harris) to increase a 30-26 lead to 36-26 at 12:23.
KU had an 11-point lead, 40-29, at 10:44 and extended the run to 14-3 to grab a 15-point lead, 44-29, at 9:31.
KSU cut the gap to 44-33 at 7:51.
KU won for the second straight season in Bramlage. KU is 5-3 in the last eight meetings at Bramlage and 9-5 overall since the Jayhawks won the first 19 games ever played between the teams in the arena that replaced Ahearn Fieldhouse as home of the Wildcats.
KU on Saturday will try to complete a season sweep of Texas Tech. The Jayhawks edged the Red Raiders, 58-57, on Dec. 17 at United Supermarkets Arena in Lubbock, Texas. KU will follow that game at Texas on Tuesday and back home against Baylor on Saturday, Feb. 27.
