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Kansas embarrasses Nebraska by 53 points

Feb 18, 2007 - 1:11 AM LAWRENCE, Kansas (Ticker) -- Kansas is tuning up for March.

Freshman Darrell Arthur and Brandon Rush scored 13 points apiece as eighth-ranked Kansas cruised to a 92-39 destruction of Nebraska in a Big 12 Conference mismatch.

Trying to make a late-season push for one of the four top seeds in the NCAA Tournament, the Jayhawks (23-4, 10-2 Big 12) have reeled off four straight wins by an average of 29.3 points. They remained tied with Texas A&M atop the conference standings.

"I did not think it was going to be this easy," Rush said. "We came in and got them on one of our better days, when everything was going right for us and they could not make any shots."

The Jayhawks hardly had to break a sweat in their latest thrashing. They built a 36-22 halftime lead and were in front by as many as 55 points in the second half.

"We kind of weathered the storm early and didn't play great but put it together late," Kansas coach Bill Self said. "The whole key for us was just, "Let's make a shot,' because we had wide-open looks the way they played. Then we started to make a lot of shots and we shared the ball and played very well. I thought the whole team played well today."

Freshman Sherron Collins added 12 points for Kansas, which has won eight straight and 17 of the last 18 meetings against Nebraska. The Jayhawks posted a 76-56 victory in Lincoln on January 29.

Aleks Maric scored 14 points for the Cornhuskers (15-10, 4-7), who were coming off a surprising 74-63 win over Kansas State.

The Cornhuskers actually were competitive for much of the first half and were within 20-18 at the 7:04 mark following Maric's tip-in.

However, Collins converted a layup, a free throw and 3-pointer to trigger a 12-0 run. Rush's jumper with just over three minutes left in the half capped the surge.

"I thought Sherron really sparked us in the first half because he started getting in the paint," Self said.

"The game was, I think, 18 to 18 with seven minutes to go (in the first half)," Nebraska coach Doc Sadler said. "The thing that concerns you is whether we can win the game or not. The things you did in the first 13 minutes of the game is to give yourself a chance - and Kansas wasn't at that magic level so it allowed us to be in the game. Then, the last seven minutes of the half, we gave them 18 points and we can't score enough points to give 18 free points away in seven minutes. And then (Kansas) got on a roll and we couldn't stop them."

The Jayhawks turned the second half into an annihilation, reeling off a 15-4 run in just over seven minutes after emerging from the locker room.

A dunk by Darnell Jackson pushed the advantage to 60-29 with 8:16 remaining.

In the second half, the Jayhawks shot 67 percent (20-of-30) to finish at 58 percent (35-of-60) overall. They also had a 42-24 cushion on the boards.

Nebraska was limited to just seven baskets and shot under 30 percent over the final 20 minutes.

"I am glad it is over with. I am glad to get this game out of the way," Nebraska guard Charles Richardson said. "Just like last time when we lost to them, we just have to look forward to the game ahead. After the last time they kicked our butts we were able to go and get two road wins. We have to build off this and win our next game.

"I don't think we can really draw any positives from this game, but we can watch film on the game and learn from our mistakes and go from there."