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Collins lifts Kansas to another victory over Kansas State

Feb 20, 2007 - 6:49 AM MANHATTAN, Kansas (Ticker) -- Kansas State has been pretty good at home, but they still were not good enough to get the better of Sherron Collins and Kansas.

Collins scored 20 points and the sixth-ranked Jayhawks continued their domination of the Wildcats with a 71-62 victory in a Big 12 Conference matchup.

Kansas State (19-8, 8-5 Big 12) is headed in the right direction under coach Bob Huggins and entered the game 12-1 at home. That mattered little against Kansas (24-4, 11-2), which has won 34 of the last 35 meetings in the series.

The Wildcats have not beaten the Jayhawks in Manhattan since January 29, 1983. A freshman reserve, Collins made sure Kansas State did not break that streak this time.

In a closely contested game, Lance Harris hit a 3-pointer for the Wildcats to make it 43-43 with 11:12 to play. Collins answered with a 3-pointer to spark a 16-4 run as the Jayhawks took control.

"Our guards always pushed the ball and get it to the basket. We get to running and get more energy going, we bring more energy to the floor," Collins said. "I was trying to pick my spots and choose the best ways to attack the zone. Coach (Self) told us to attack and that's what I was trying to do."

Collins capped the spurt with a pair of free throws to give Kansas a 59-47 lead with 5:39 remaining.

"(Sherron) Collins is special, he's a very good player," Kansas State coach Bob Huggins said. "You just can't stay in front of him."

Mario Chalmers had 17 points and freshman Darrell Arthur added 13 and 12 rebounds for Kansas.

"Mario and (Darrell Arthur) carried us in the first half, and Sherron put us on his back in the second half," Self said.

Arthur had four of the Jayhawks' 11 offensive rebounds as Kansas scored 13 second-chance points.

"They're good and we didn't do enough to win," Huggins said. "You can't give them that many offensive rebounds, you can't give them too many second chances. We gave them too many second chances. If you give them too many second chances, they're going to beat you because they're good."

Kansas State not only had trouble keeping Kansas off the boards, it had trouble shooting the ball as well. The Wildcats finished 20-of-62 (32 percent) from the field, including 3-of-11 from the arc in the second half.

"I thought our shot selection in the second half was better than our shot selection in the first half," Huggins said. "In the first half we took some God awful shots, we just couldn't make any."