• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Kansas shoots for third straight against Ball State

Nov 24, 2006 - 3:16 PM Ball St (2-1) at No. 12 Kansas (3-1) 8:00 pm EST

LAS VEGAS (Ticker) -- Kansas won't be looking past Ball State this time.

After getting upset by the Cardinals in the Maui Invitational in 2001, the 10th-ranked Jayhawks will hope to avoid another upset in the third round of the Las Vegas Invitational at Orleans Arena.

Kansas was ranked fourth in the country five years ago when Ball State posted a 93-91 victory. The Jayhawks reached the Final Four that season and are expected to return again this year.

Kansas is looking for its third straight win after losing, 78-71, to Oral Roberts on November 15. The Jayhawks routed Tennessee State, 89-54, on Tuesday as freshman guard Sherron Collins paced five players in double figures with a season-high 19 points.

Center Sasha Kaun, who partially tore a tendon in his right knee just before the season began, returned to the lineup and scored seven points in nine minutes. With Kansas already stacked in the backcourt, the 6-11 junior will help up front, especially with a contest with top-ranked Florida looming Saturday.

Freshman forward Darrell Arthur leads the team in scoring at 17.5 points per game and sophomore guard Brandon Rush is scoring 15.5 points per game.

Ball State (2-1), which has lost seven straight games against ranked schools since beating third-ranked UCLA one day after knocking off Kansas in 2001, is coming off a horrible shooting effort in Tuesday's 70-55 loss to Chattanooga. The club shot just 29 percent (29.2) from the field and was just 2-of-29 from the arc.

Sophomore guard Jalon Perryman leads the Cardinals at 13.0 points per game on 52 percent shooting for a club that is shooting just 37.4 percent.