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Kansas advances with win over EKU

Mar 22, 2014 - 3:11 AM St. Louis, MO (SportsNetwork.com) - Andrew Wiggins scored a game-high 19 points to lead Kansas to an 80-69 win over Eastern Kentucky in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Jamari Traylor added 17 points and 14 rebounds and Perry Ellis added 14 points with 13 boards for the Jayhawks (24-9), who will face Stanford in the third round on Sunday.

"I thought Andrew played well and was aggressive, too. He didn't get many opportunities. I don't know if you noticed how No. 12 played him, he played on top of him the whole time," said Kansas coach Bill Self. "So the way he was going to catch it was to throw it over. We had a couple of things lined up to throw over, but we handled the ball so poorly early it kind of negated what we wanted to do."

Kansas was again without star big man Joel Embiid, who has been sidelined since early March with a back injury. Tarik Black, who lost his starting spot to Embiid early in the season, filled in for the Big-12 Defensive Player of the Year and contributed 12 points, five rebounds and four blocks.

Glenn Cosey scored 17 points and Tarius Johnson and Eric Stutz both finished with 11 for the Colonels (24-9).

"Their length really did bother us because we couldn't go up like we usually do. And we should have got in there and kicked it out. Especially myself, I should have got in and kicked it out more," Cosey said.

Kansas trailed by as many as nine in the first half, but opened the second session on a 13-5 run to go up 45-38. The Colonels countered with 10 unanswered to go up 48-45 following Johnson's 3-pointer with just under 13 minutes to play.

After Johnson made it 56-53 nearly four minutes later with another trey, the Jayhawks opened a 9-0 run to capture the lead for good. Traylor opened the flurry with a three-point play and also threw down a putback dunk off a missed Wayne Selden free throw.

Eastern Kentucky pulled within a possession when Johnson buried yet another 2- pointer with 2:29 to go, but seven straight points from the Jayhawks essentially put the game out of reach. Wiggins highlighted the spurt with an authoritative two-handed flush.

The Colonels never got closer than nine the rest of the way.

Eastern Kentucky jumped out to a 13-6 lead less than five minutes in. Cosey made three 3-pointers on the early burst. Kansas clawed back within two, 16-14, following Conner Frankamp's jumper, but seven straight points -- five from Cosey -- had the Colonels leading 23-14.

A 14-4 run, highlighted by a Wiggins slam, had the Jayhawks up 28-27. Jeff Johnson swung the lead back in EKU's favor with a triple with 1:13 to go, but a Frank Mason jumper and Wiggins layup made it 32-30 Kansas. Orlando Williams sank a pair of free throws with a second left in the half to send the teams into the break tied at 32-32.

Game Notes

Kansas outscored EKU 54-20 in the paint ... The Jayhawks bench outscored the Colonels reserves 29-12 ... Kansas was 0-for-7 from 3-point range ... EKU scored 19 points off 14 Kansas turnovers and committed just seven giveaways.