No. 3 Kansas holds off Iowa State 84-79
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Marcus Morris had career highs with 33 points and 13 rebounds, Markieff Morris added 17 points and No. 3 Kansas held off Iowa State 84-79 to win its 20th straight conference opener.
Josh Selby added 14 points for the Jayhawks (16-0, 1-0 Big 12), who never trailed in picking up their 11th straight win over the Cyclones.
Marcus Morris drilled an open jumper to put the Jayhawks ahead by seven with 1:55 to go, and Markieff Morris followed with a putback that made it 78-69 with just over a minute left.
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Diante Garrett had 27 points, Jamie Vanderbeken added 19 and Jake Anderson 16 for Iowa State (13-4, 0-2 Big 12), which shot just 9 of 32 from 3-point range and was outscored in the paint 42-26.
Kansas senior Mario Little, who missed six games after being charged in a fight, finished with eight points in 19 minutes.
Though the Cyclones never led, they threatened the Jayhawks on several occasions before falling short.
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Iowa State cut Kansas's lead to 48-47 on Vanderbeken's 3, but Brady Morningstar grabbed a loose ball at midcourt and found Selby for a 25-footer from the wing. Markieff Morris then had a quick dunk, Marcus Morris caught the Cyclones napping for a putback and Tyrel Reed's 3 pushed the Jayhawks back up by double digits, 59-49, with 12:32 left.
Iowa State answered with an 16-7 run over the next 5 minutes, pulling to 68-65, before two more buckets by the Morris twins gave Kansas a little breathing room.
Kansas held Iowa State to four points for seven minutes down the stretch, which gave it just enough to push aside the upset-minded Cyclones.
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Iowa State hung around enough early to close to 26-24 midway through the first half. But Kansas's constant defensive pressure got the Cyclones out of sync, and the Jayhawks rattled off 13 quick points to jump ahead 37-24 late in the first half.
Iowa State, aided by Kansas's shoddy 9-of-16 free throw shooting, crept to 40-34 by the break.
Kansas has had a few close calls this season, barely escaping UCLA at home, 77-76 on Dec. 2 and beating USC by 2 two weeks later. Michigan pushed the Jayhawks to overtime in Ann Arbor on Sunday before they escaped with a 67-60 win.
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The Cyclones made the Jayhawks sweat this one out at times — as Northern Iowa did in handing the Jayhawks their last loss 10 months ago — but they simply had no answer for Kansas' depth or the Morris twins, who combined for 50 points and 24 boards.
Iowa State's 13-2 start was its best since 2000-01, but Kansas was the first ranked team the Cyclones had faced — and they went all out with the rival Jayhawks in town.
They waited until Wednesday night to unveil a statue of former coach Johnny Orr outside of a sports-bar themed area for donors at Hilton Coliseum. Orr, who coached Iowa State's Fred Hoiberg from 1991-95 and is credited with creating the "Hilton Magic" atmosphere Hoiberg is trying to bring back as coach, was honored at center court to raucous cheers before the game.
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It wasn't enough against the vaunted Jayhawks, who won their seventh straight in Ames.