LAWRENCE, Kan. — Kansas’ No. 4-ranked men’s basketball team will take a sparkling 11-1 record into the start of Big 12 Conference play against Oklahoma State on New Year’s Eve.
Jalen Wilson scored 21 points (and hit 1,000 for his career) and grabbed six rebounds while Kevin McCullar added 14 points and 11 rebounds as the Jayhawks, winners of five consecutive games, completed the bulk of their 2022-23 nonleague slate with a 68-54 victory over Harvard on Thursday night at Allen Fieldhouse.
KU, which led by nine points at 8:45 but had some trouble pulling away from a pesky Harvard team, has just one nonconference game left to play — Jan. 28 at Kentucky in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge.
Gradey Dick contributed 11 points and seven rebounds and KJ Adams added 10 points and seven rebounds as KU won its 13th consecutive game at Allen Fieldhouse, where it has a 299-16 record in the 20-year Bill Self era.
KU’s lone loss this season was 64-50 to Tennessee on Nov. 25 in the the finals of the Battle 4 Atlantis in Paradise Island, Bahamas.
KU improved to 2-0 all time against Harvard and 17-0 against Ivy League competition.
Chris Ledlum scored 17 and Eric Nelson added 10 points for the Crimson (8-5), who had lost to the Jayhawks by just six points on Dec. 5, 2015 at Allen.
KU missed its first nine threes and trailed the Crimson, 20-16, with 6:41 left in the first half.
However, the Jayhawks rolled to a 16-3 half-ending run and led 32-23 at the break.
First, Dick hit two free throws, then McCullar scored on a rebound of his own inside miss to tie the game at 20. Next, Adams scored on an inside shot off a nice feed from Dick. Seconds earlier, Adams had missed a lob dunk.
Dick then hit a 3-pointer at 2:21 and MJ Rice scored off a lob from Pettiford. Rice hit two free throws and it was 29-20 KU at with 30 seconds to go in the half.
It looked as if Harvard would be down by just six at the break when Ledlum drilled a 3 with five seconds to play. However Dick cashed a long NBA 3 to beat the buzzer and provide KU a nine-point halftime margin.
Dick and Wilson had eight points in the half for KU, which hit 44.8% of its shots in the first 20 minutes, including a mark of just 2 of 11 from 3. Harvard, which was led by five points from Ledlum and Evan Nelson, hit 34.6% of its first-half shots and was 3 of 11 from 3.
Harris, who picked up two early fouls, had two points and two assists in 12 minutes in the initial half. Adams had three steals the first half. KU as a team had six.
Harvard opened the second half on a 8-2 run and cut the gap to 34-31 at 17:00. The Jayhawks then went on a 6-0 run to push the margin to nine points, 40-31, at 15:01. Harris scored off a layup, which was followed by an Adams stickback of a Harris blocked shot and a McCullar eight-footer.
Staying in the game, the Crimson cut the deficit to 40-36 at 12:26. It was 42-38 at 11:11 and 45-40 KU at 10:06.
KU stretched a 49-44 lead to 57-46 at 4:36. McCullar had a nice spin move down low for a bucket while Wilson had four points and a block in the crucial 8-2 run.
Wilson, by the way, had 11 points in the last 6:30.
The Jayhawks now embark on a four-day Christmas vacation. The next practice has been scheduled for Tuesday. KU’s next game is the Big 12 opener against Oklahoma State, set for 1 p.m. on New Year’s Eve at Allen.
