Flory Bidunga had 17 points, 10 rebounds and seven blocks as No. 11 Kansas recorded its seventh straight win by upending Utah 71-59 on Saturday afternoon in Lawrence, Kan.
Bidunga made 7 of 8 field goal attempts and 3 of 4 from the line while Tre White notched 16 points and six boards for the Jayhawks (18-5, 8-2 Big 12).
Darryn Peterson scored 14 points while Melvin Council Jr. had 11 points, six assists and five rebounds as Kansas was 28 of 56 (50%) from the field.
With the victory, the Jayhawks remained in a tie for third place in the conference with No. 7 Iowa State, a 72-69 winner over Baylor.
In losing its fifth consecutive contest, Utah (9-14, 1-9) received a strong performance from Keanu Dawes with 22 points and 12 rebounds.
Terrence Brown had 16 points and four steals and Don McHenry scored 12 with five boards as the visitors hit 40% (22 of 55) from the floor.
During the first four minutes, Dawes sank a pair of 3-pointers and scored eight points as Utah led 12-8 on 5 of 7 shooting from the floor, while the home side missed 4 of 7 tries.
Kansas went back ahead for the second time on a 10-2 run highlighted by an alley-oop dunk tossed up by Council and slammed down by Bidunga at 13:05. The Utes aided the run by missing eight consecutive shots.
After being fouled on a long ball, McHenry canned all three free throws to make it 28-23 at 5:37. Seydou Traore then made three of four freebies to slice the deficit to 30-28.
Despite committing seven turnovers and seeing Utah coming up with six steals, Kansas used an 8-3 run to lead 38-31 at the break behind Council’s nine points and four assists.
Utah opened the second half on a 5-0 run to put it at 38-36 and force a timeout by Kansas coach Bill Self. Bidunga dunked coming out of the timeout, then an alley-oop slam by White and Council’s floating jumper at 10:17 gave the home side its first double-digit lead at 54-44.
Peterson’s steal and breakaway slam for a 3-point play at 8:26 lifted it to 59-44, a margin Utah could never reduce to single digits.
–Field Level Media
