No. 17 Kansas finally puts away sliding Colorado

Hunter Dickinson finished with 19 points and nine rebounds, Zeke Mayo had 13 points and eight, respectively, and No. 17 Kansas beat the Colorado Buffaloes 71-59 in Lawrence, Kan., on Tuesday night.

Dajuan Harris and KJ Adams scored 10 points apiece for the Jayhawks (17-7, 8-5 Big 12).

Sebastian Rancik had 19 points and nine rebounds, Bangot Dak contributed 11 points and Elijah Malone scored 10 for plummeting Colorado (9-15, 0-13), which has lost 13 in a row. It is the Buffaloes’ worst start to a conference season since going 0-14 in the Big 8 in the 1985-86 season.

Colorado trailed by 14 at halftime but came out strong after the break. Andrej Jakimovski hit two 3-pointers, Dak made a layup and Rancik drained a jumper during an opening 10-2 run.

Minutes later, Dickinson made a layup and David Coit hit from deep to stretch the lead to 50-39, but the Buffaloes responded with the next six points.

The Jayhawks pushed their lead to 60-50 with 7:51 left, and they were able to maintain the advantage for the next four minutes. Rancik cut it to 64-56 with a layup off a miss, but Mayo hit a 3-pointer.

Colorado’s Julian Hammond III missed on the other end, and Adams hit a short jumper off an inbounds play that gave Kansas a 69-56 lead with 1:39 left.

Jakimovski missed a 3-pointer and Mayo hit two free throws with 1:12 left to seal the win.

The game was close through most of the first half, and Colorado led 12-10 at one point, but the Jayhawks took control later in the half when the Buffaloes went nearly seven minutes without a field goal.

With Kansas leading 25-19, Adams made a layup and fed Dickinson for a dunk. Adams also dunked, Mayo hit a jumper and Dickinson converted a three-point play that made it 36-22 with 3:14 left.

Hammond broke the drought with a layup with 1:44 left, but Dickinson’s late tip-in gave the Jayhawks a 40-26 lead at intermission.