• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Kansas flattens Florida Gulf Coast

Nov 19, 2008 - 6:02 AM LAWRENCE, Kansas (Ticker) -- Sherron Collins scored a career-high 25 points as No. 24 Kansas crushed Florida Gulf Coast, 85-45, in the second round of the O'Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic on Tuesday.

The Jayhawks hit 16-of-32 from the field in the opening 20 minutes while limiting the Eagles from the Atlantic Sun Conference to 3-of-25 (12 percent).

The Eagles actually scored more points from the free-throw line (7) than they did from the field (6) in the first half en route to trailing, 45-13, at intermission.

"My main message was that offensively the ball was sticking. Last year, if we made 16 field goals in a half we never had only seven assists," Kansas coach Bill Self said. "Sherron played great, but he got all of his shots on his own. He didn't get his shots with his teammates helping him.

"Our guys don't quite understand yet where the shots are going to come from and how to score out of our offense. They are young and new, but we have to do some things to help Sherron because against quality competition you can't just showcase him."

Collins had 18 of his points in the first half, outscoring the Eagles by himself. The 5-11 junior hit 9-of-14 from the field, including 4-of-6 from behind the arc.

"Coach says I should take 18-to-20 shots a game," Collins said. "I don't really count my shots or pay attention to them. I'm just hot right now and they are all falling. I got two easy early buckets and that kind of got me going."

Collins also has been showcasing a new shot, a step-back jumper.

"Coach (Joe) Dooley did a great job with me this summer to try and get me to do different moves so that I could score different ways," Collins said. "There were a lot of different things that I worked on all summer."

The Jayhawks shot 32-of-65 from the field and outscored the Eagles, 40-14, in the paint in recording their 26th straight win at home.

The Eagles were led by Reed Baker with 11 points. He was 3-of-14 from the floor.

"The ball just wasn't going in the hole for us tonight," Baker said. "Kansas had great pressure defense, which we haven't really seen in practice. "It was tough getting the ball to fall tonight, and you have to credit Kansas' defense for that."

Florida Gulf Coast, which lost 11 of 13 players from last season, finished 13-of-55 from the floor.

"I've got a lot to talk about. There weren't a lot of shots going in," Florida Golf Coast coach Dave Balza said. "Our biggest issue is our young team. We have two guys that have never played for us before in a game and only four guys have played in Division I.

"I thought we were really out of sync and I give credit to Kansas. They pressured us well and took us out of every entry in their offense. We didn't get much flow to our offense in the first half. ... Again, I give Kansas a lot of credit for some rushed shots as opposed to open looks."

Prior to the game, Kansas unveiled its fifth national championship banner, honoring the 2008 NCAA title team.

"I don't know how the guys felt, but I got close to tearing up before the game," Self said. "That was pretty cool. It was pretty moving. I thought that it was pretty cool looking at all the people with their cell phones out taking pictures."

Kansas will meet Washington in a CBE Classic semifinal on November 24. Florida and Syracuse will face off in the other semifinal.