Vostand » The Jayhawks regained the lead at 59-56

ST. LOUIS -- Bill Self gathered his team around the bench late in Fridays game against Eastern Kentucky, one that had grown a bit too close for comfort for the second-seeded Jayhawks. His team had gone back to chucking up jumpers, the scrappy Ohio Valley Conference champions had regained the lead, and thoughts of Mercers upset of Duke earlier in the day were on everyones mind. "I thought we responded as a group," Self said. The Jayhawks resumed pounding away inside out of the timeout, slowly took control down the stretch and pulled away for an 80-69 victory in the second round of the NCAA tournament. Andrew Wiggins of Vaughan, Ont., had 19 points for the Jayhawks (25-9), who will play No. 10 seed Stanford on Sunday in the South Regional. Jamari Traylor added 17 points and 14 rebounds, Perry Ellis had 14 points and 13 boards and Tarik Black finished with 12 points as Kansas dominated in the paint. "Our main focus on the game was to get in there and pound them," Traylor said. Even without 7-footer Joel Embiid, who is out for the weekend with a back injury. Glenn Cosey hit five 3-pointers and had 17 points for the 15th-seeded Colonels (24-10), who have lost all eight of their NCAA tournament games. Tarius Johnson and Eric Stutz finished with 15 points apiece, but second-leading scorer Corey Walden was held to four points before fouling out. "Corey is a very important part of our team," Colonels coach Jeff Neubauer said. "With that being said, thats not an excuse. Kansas really played great." In the second half, perhaps. Certainly not in the first. Like a swarm of gnats, the smaller guards of Eastern Kentucky made life miserable for the turnover-prone Jayhawks in the first 20 minutes. Kansas had more turnovers (10) by the midway point than field goal attempts (9), and at one juncture turned it over on six of eight possessions. Most of those miscues turned into easy points at the other end. The Colonels, buoyed by their trademark 3-point shooting, raced out to a 23-14 lead, silencing a heavily pro-Jayhawks crowd and even making some fans out of New Mexico and Stanford folks. "Our defence is focused on turning people over and being aggressive," Stutz said. "In that first half, thats what got us our lead." It wasnt until the first of two rim-rattling dunks by Wiggins off alley-oop passes that Kansas showed some life. The second came during an 8-0 flurry that gave the Big 12 champions a 28-27 lead with just over a minute to play, their first since the opening minute of the game. The Jayhawks have grown accustomed to tussles with lower seeds, of course. Just last year, they trailed No. 16 seed Western Kentucky at halftime before pulling away down the stretch. It looked like Kansas would pull away again Friday, scoring on its first seven trips down court and building a 45-38 lead. The turnovers suddenly came to a stop -- after 13 in the first half, the Jayhawks had just one in the second -- and Eastern Kentucky was suddenly on the ropes. But rather than continue to pound away inside, where the Jayhawks were having so much success, they reverted to missing jump shots. The Colonels took advantage with a 10-0 run, and Self called a red-faced timeout rather than risk pulling out his hair. "We knew that anything could happen," the Jayhawks Conner Frankamp said. "We were down, we tried to stay poised and not get too rattled, and just tried to make the easy play, because we felt like we could score pretty good down low." Once they were reminded of that fact. Kansas went back inside out of the timeout, dumping the ball to a big man or driving to the basket. The Jayhawks regained the lead at 59-56 on Wayne Seldens free throw and Traylors putback dunk, and then kept turning back every 3-pointer that Eastern Kentucky managed to rattle home. "Just our mentality (changed)," Wiggins said. "We were tougher on the ball. We knew against the defence of this team, we had to make good decisions, great plays and throw it inside." When the final seconds ticked away, and the Jayhawks were assured of advancing, Self slowly walked to the scorers table to shake hands with his Eastern Kentucky counterpart. He exhaled deeply as he stuck out his hand, and the first words he said were, "Great game." "They played great. They played loose and gave us everything we wanted," he said later. "It was a hard-fought game, one we had to work our tail off 40 minutes to come out with a win." Cheap Hydro Flask Water Bottle . And follow TSN.ca right through Deadline Day for all the updates. From Pierre LeBrun While Anaheim GM Bob Murray said earlier this season he was not going to trade Jonas Hiller despite the fact hes an unrestricted free agent on July 1, some sources have told TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun that Murray might be willing to move another goalie. Cheap Hydro Flask Ombre . Dalton completed his only pass and led the Bengals to a touchdown in his only drive -- one that took four minutes to finish -- and the Cincinnati Bengals ended the preseason with a 27-10 victory over the Indianapolis Colts on Thursday night. http://www.cheaphydroflaskonline.com/. Sociedad remained in sixth place with Villarreal a point behind in seventh, both in Europa League spots and in striking distance of fourth place and the final Champions League berth. Sociedad forward Carlos Vela chipped goalkeeper Jaime Jimenez after receiving an equally exquisite lobbed pass from Ruben Pardo to set him up in the 23rd minute at Anoeta Stadium. Cheap Hydro Flask Wholesale .com) - Whew! North Dakota States reign as the three-time FCS national champion was pushed to the limit by South Dakota State on Saturday, but freshman R. Cheap Hydro Flask Online . -- Falcons running back Steven Jackson, who has missed the last four games with a hamstring injury, is expected to practice on Wednesday. CIS Roundup: Unbeaten Western whips defending Yates Cup champion McMaster 32-3@ LONDON, Ont. - The undefeated Western Mustangs ended McMasters two-year reign as Yates Cup champions, with a 32-3 victory over the Marauders in the OUA semifinal on Saturday. Lirim Hajrullahu booted five field goals, including kicks of 47 and 42 yards, before the Mustangs got their first touchdown on a five-yard run by Yannick Harou in the third quarter. Harou made it 29-3 with a three-yard run, and finished the game with 20 carries for 112 yards. Hajrullahu added a sixth field goal in the fourth quarter from 42 yards. The Mustangs rolled up 520 yards compared to 260 for the Marauders, who despite the lopsided score had the better time of possession with 31 minutes. --- GAELS 34 GRYPHONS 17 KINGSTON, Ont. -- The Queens Gaels are headed to the Yates Cup after avenging last years OUA semifinal overtime loss to Guelph. Queens trailed by a point at halftime, and shut out Guelph the rest of the way to win their 14th in a row at home. The Gaels took the lead with a pair of safeties, and Ryan Granberg made it a 10-point game with a one-yard touchdown run. Queens extended that lead on Billy McPhees 39-yard touchdown pass to Scott Macdonell. --- MOUNTIES 19 AXEMEN 10 SACKVILLE, N.B. -- Mount Allisons offence failed to make it into the end zone, but the Mounties still got by the Acadia Axemen in their AUS semifinal to advance to next weeks Loney BBowl against Saint Marys.dddddddddddd Kyle Mclean put the Mounties in front for good with his his fourth field goal of the game, a 30-yarder in the fourth quarter, and the home team got some breathing room with its only touchdown of the game when Kwame Adjei scored on a 40-year interception, Thomas Troop scored on a one-yard run and Thomas Blight connected on a 25-yard field goal to account for the Axeman scoring. --- ROUGE ET OR 32 VERT ET OR 11 LAVAL, Que. -- The unbeaten Rouge et Or turned it on after halftime and whipped Sherbrooke to advance to the RSEQ semfinal. The game was tied 4-4 at halftime before Laval broke it open with two touchdown passes from Alex Skinner to Felix Faubert-Lussier. 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