Mason, Graham demolish Boilermakers

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It took about 10 minutes for Kansas guards Frank Mason III and Devonte Graham to slow down, gain their composure and get everything under control in their Midwest Regional semifinal.

When that happened, everything promptly sped up for Purdue.

The pace of the game turning in their favor, the high-flying Jayhawks proceeded to wear down the bigger, stronger Boilermakers on Thursday night. And by the time Mason and Graham finished scoring 26 points apiece, No. 1 seed Kansas had coasted to a 98-66 victory and a spot in the Elite Eight.

“When we started to slow down and play our style of basketballw, that’s when we started rolling,” said Mason, the player of the year front-runner, who also had seven rebounds and seven assists.

The Jayhawks will play No. 3 seed Oregon, which survived a nail-biter earlier in the night, on Saturday night for a spot in their first Final Four since 2012.

Josh Jackson added 15 points and 12 rebounds, and Landen Lucas did a good job of keeping Purdue forwards Caleb Swanigan and Isaac Haas in check, as the Jayhawks (31-4) turned a seven-point halftime lead into their third consecutive blowout in the NCAA Tournament.

Their beat-down of the Big Ten champs followed easy wins over UC Davis and Michigan State.

“You just cannot let them get in transition like that,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said. “If they keep getting those types of opportunities and shoot like that, they can’t be stopped.”

Swanigan still had 18 points and seven boards for the No. 4 seed Boilermakers (27-8), but the 6-9, 250-pound All-America candidate had to work for all of it. The Jayhawks kept collapsing on him in the post, forcing Swanigan to begin taking 3-pointers early in the second half.

It wasn’t much longer before the game was out of reach.

“It was one of the best games we’ve played all year,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “The second half was about as complete as we played. We were pretty good at both ends.”