The No. 1 Kansas Jayhawks have advanced to the Elite Eight for the second straight season, after defeating the No. 4 Purdue Boilermakers 98-66 on Thursday night in the Sweet 16. The Jayhawks led 47-40 in the first half, and the offense didn’t let its foot off the gas after the break.
NCAA Tournament 2017: Kansas has dominant second half to blow out Purdue 98-66
The Jayhawks are headed to the Elite Eight.
Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
Kansas scored 51 points in the second half, and overall the Jayhawks notched a whopping 15 three-pointers, shooting 54 percent from beyond the arc. Purdue had just 26 points in the second half.
You could sense the game getting away from the Boilermakers with 12:03 left in the second half. Kansas had just taken a 63-54 lead, the Jayhawks’ largest of the night, and rebounded an attempted three from Purdue to set up a three-pointer from Josh Jackson. That made it 66-54, and things just continued on from there. This is a pretty good indication of how lopsided things were, with two minutes left in the second half.
Frank Mason III finished with 26 points and seven rebounds, including a 4-of-5 mark from the three-point line. Devonte’ Graham added another 26 points. It marks the first time since 1971 that Kansas had two players score more than 25 points in a tournament game.
Kansas’ first three games of the tournament have come without much drama. The Jayhawks defeated No. 16 UC Davis 100-62, then beat the No. 9 Michigan State Spartans 90-70, followed by this latest 32-point victory over Purdue. The last time that any team scored more than 90 points in its first three games of the NCAA Tournament was UConn in 1995.
Next up for Bill Self’s team is the No. 3 Oregon Ducks, which defeated the No. 7 Michigan Wolverines on Thursday night. This marks Self’s seventh Elite Eight appearance with the Jayhawks.
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