Kansas men 75, Stanford 54: Jayhawks unleash dunks.
SACRAMENTO — Stanford tried hard not to let Kansas get rolling with three-pointers Thursday night. That often left 7-foot center Udoka Azubuike alone on either Michael Humphrey or Josh Sharma.
That’s not a fair fight because Azubuike is one of the major loads in college basketball. The sophomore from Nigeria scored 24 points, and had eight of the 14th-ranked Jayhawks’ 13 dunks, in a 75-54 rout of the Cardinal at the Golden 1 Center.
After losing to Washington and Arizona State back-to-back recently, Kansas was not about to fall to a third Pac-12 team.
Aside from Azubuike and 6-8 Ukrainian guard Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk, the injury-riddled Jayhawks (10-2) don’t have a lot of size. But they held Stanford forward Reid Travis to 12 points and four rebounds.
“I’m disappointed with myself that I didn’t have more success finding guys and attacking the pressure,” Travis said.
The Cardinal fell to 6-7 going into Pac-12 play, beginning Dec. 30 with a home game against Cal. They have been shorthanded without injured wings Dorian Pickens and Marcus Sheffield while playing a very difficult schedule.
They had one very promising development in this game. Freshman forward Kezie Okpala made his debut after being cleared academically. He hit a three for his first collegiate points and finished with six points, playing 28 minutes. He showed signs of why he was a consensus top-50 recruit out of Esperanza High in Anaheim.
“I was really proud of the way he competed,” Stanford head coach Jerod Haase said. “He competed at a high level both halves. I think he has a chance to be an elite-level defender. I think he showed that at times tonight.
“Offensively, he has a bunch of different tools. I think you saw a lot of that even though he didn’t finish plays . ... This is the very tip of the iceberg.”
Humphrey led Stanford with 20 points, but he struggled trying to hold off Azubuike defensively. “He’s a big body,” Humphrey said. “He had a heck of a game. He moved really well for his size.”
Haase, coaching against his alma mater, took the blame for not giving his post players more help with Azubuike, while concentrating on the perimeter shooters. “We left Mike and Josh on an island a little bit,” he said. “That’s on my shoulders.”
Once Kansas went on a scoring splurge five minutes into the game, Stanford saw its chances steadily slip away.
Humphrey hit two early threes and Robert Cartwright made one as the Cardinal led 11-10. Kansas then went on an 18-2 run as Lagerald Vick had two dunks and a three-pointer.
The Jayhawks unloaded eight dunks in taking a 47-29 first half lead, to the delight of a heavily pro-Kansas crowd of 7,880.
Azubuike hit 12 of 15 shots, mostly dunks or layups. It’s no wonder that he came into the evening leading the nation in field-goal percentage at 77.6.
Devonte’ Graham and Mykhailiuk had 14 each, and Vick followed with 13 points for the Jayhawks. Kansas shot 53 percent to 34 for Stanford.