No. 17 Kansas struggles before beating Colorado 71-59 behind 19 points from Hunter Dickinson

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Hunter Dickinson scored 19 points to help No. 17 Kansas beat Colorado 71-59 on Tuesday night, handing the Buffaloes their 13th straight loss.

Besides Dickinson, Kansas (16-7, 7-5 Big 12) had three other players in double figures. Zeke Mayo added 13 points and Dajuan Harris and KJ Adams each had 10 each.

Kansas has alternated between wins and losses in the last seven games. Despite the double-digit margin, this victory was anything but easy.

Colorado (9-14, 0-12) used an early second-half run to trim a 14-point halftime deficit to just 6. Kansas didn’t lead by more than 11 points until Adams hit a short jumper just before the shot clock expired to make it 69-56 with 1:31 left.

Sebastian Rancik led Colorado with a season-high 19 points. Bangot Dak added 11 points for the Buffaloes, and Elijah Malone had 10.

Takeaways

Colorado: Even after Kansas pulled away late in the first half to take a 40-26 lead into the break, the Buffaloes opened the second half with a 10-2 run to trim the deficit to six points.

Kansas: The Jayhawks needed a big game from Dickinson and they got it. With backup center Flory Bidunga scoring just fuur points, Dickinson’s 19 points were critical.

Key moment

Kansas held Colorado without a field goal for almost seven minutes in the first half to help the Jayhawks open their largest lead of the game. The Buffaloes missed 10 straight shots during the stretch.

Key stat

Colorado shot just 17.4% (4-of-23) from 3-point range. The Buffaloes were 1-of-11 in the first half.

Up next

Colorado returns home to face UCF on Saturday, while Kansas travels to Salt Lake City to face Utah.

___

Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub