LAWRENCE, Kan. — Kansas, which clobbered Omaha of the Summit League by 45 points during the Jayhawks’ 2017-18 Final Four season, had a similarly easy time disposing of the mid-major Mavericks, 95-50, on Friday night at Allen Fieldhouse.
Senior forward Mitch Lightfoot, who had scored just 15 points and grabbed 17 rebounds in limited duty in KU’s first six games, scored 12 points (with four rebounds) the first half as KU cruised to a 45-22 halftime advantage. Lightfoot, a 6-8 native of Gilbert, Ariz., finished with a career-high 14 points on 4-of-5 shooting. He hit a 3-pointer and also canned 5 of 6 free throws and grabbed seven rebounds. Lightfoot’s old high of 11 points was attained against Oakland on Nov. 24, 2017.
Ochai Agbaji, who didn’t score in Tuesday’s home win over Creighton, had 11 points the first half and 18 overall, and David McCormack added 11 points and 11 boards as No. 5 KU improved to 6-1 on the season. The Jayhawks won their 12th straight game in their tradition-rich building.
Tyon Grant-Foster contributed 13 points and seven boards (he had two highlight reel dunks) and Marcus Garrett eight assists, five points and five rebounds for the Jayhawks, who learned before the game that Sunday’s home game against Tarleton State had been called off because of a positive case of COVID-19 in the Texans’ program. The Tarleton State game will not be made up. It is the final tuneup before KU’s Big 12 opener on Thursday at Texas Tech.
Forward Wanjang Tut led Omaha (2-5) with 14 points and five rebounds.
Garrett, Lightfoot and Chris Teahan were the only players on this year’s KU roster who played against Omaha four seasons ago.
Omaha missed its first 10 shots Friday, while the Jayhawks made six of their first nine in opening a 17-0 lead at 15:39. Garrett, who was presented the 2020 Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Award by athletic director Jeff Long and coach Bill Self before the game, had five points in that early surge, while McCormack grabbed seven early boards with four points.
Omaha finally scored on a bucket by Goddard, Kan., native Matt Pile with 14:36 left in the half, making the score 17-2.
Self went with a platoon system to open the game, the starting five of Garrett, Agbaji, McCormack, Christian Braun and Jalen Wilson (nine points, seven boards) opening the early 17-0 lead. Then with the score 17-2 giving way to Tristan Enaruna, Bryce Thompson, Dajuan Harris, Grant-Foster and Lightfoot, who had the score cut to 19-7. The starters returned to open a 20-point lead (29-9) at 7:47. Self went back to making non-group substitutions the rest of the half.
KU is set to meet Texas Tech at 6 p.m., Thursday in Lubbock, Texas. The game will be shown on ESPN.
