Big men lead No. 4 Kansas to exhibition win over Pitt State

Kansas Athletics

Carlton Bragg scored 14 points in his KU debut vs. Pittsburg State. (Courtesy KU Athletics) — Carlton Bragg, Jr. scored 14 points in his KU debut vs. Pittsburg State. (Courtesy KU Athletics)

LAWRENCE, Kan. – No. 4/5 Kansas men’s basketball opened the 2015-16 season with a 89-66 exhibition win over Pittsburg State on Wednesday night inside historic Allen Fieldhouse.

The Jayhawks relied on 46 points from their big men to notch the 43rd-straight exhibition win in Lawrence.

Senior forward Perry Ellis led the way with 22 points on 8-of-12 shooting, including 15 second-half points, in 24 minutes of action. Senior forward Hunter Mickelson tallied 10 points on 5-of-6 from the field with six rebounds in just 13 minutes. Freshman forward Carlton Bragg Jr. made his debut as a Jayhawk with 14 points on 7-of-12 shooting in 21 minutes.

Bragg made a balanced impact for the Jayhawks from start to finish. From the first play in the game, the Cleveland, Ohio, product showed the sheer versatility of his game on a high-low pass from the top of the key to assist Mickelson with an easy layup on the blocks at 14:30 mark of the first half. Bragg followed-up with a fast-break alley-oop dunk from a half-court pass from Frank Mason III which gave KU a 12-11 lead.

Kansas drained consecutive 3-pointers to jump-start an 18-5 run in the last five minutes of the first half and makeup for a sluggish start, which featured nine combined fouls in the first five minutes of the game.

Wayne Selden, Jr. started the run by draining KU’s first 3-pointer of the night at the 4:36 mark of the first half, followed by a trey from Brannen Greene on the next possession to give KU a 31-23 lead. Kansas went into the locker room with a 46-28 halftime lead after Lagerald Vick snuck in a last-second fast break layup to give KU its 18-point lead, which also marked the freshman’s first basket inside Allen Fieldhouse.

Pitt State’s Josiah Gustafson was the first player to double figures with a lay-up at 19:08 in the second half. Gustafson finished with 20 points, while Jaxon Holden registered 12 points on four of the Gorillas’ seven 3-pointers on the night.

Offense came quicker and more efficient to the Jayhawks in the second half. After taking nearly two minutes for Kansas to score its opening bucket of the game, the Jayhawks opened the second half at a much quicker pace as Mason notched a layup in the first 20 seconds. KU shot 55.9 percent in the second half, 13.8 percentage points higher than the opening period.

Kansas led by as many as 25 points with 2:43 left in the game, enabling Coach Bill Self to clear the bench and use all 14 game-eligible Jayhawks on the roster, including the career debut for sophomore walk-on Clay Young.

A pair of dunks from Bragg in the last five minutes of the game closed out the Jayhawks’ 43rd straight exhibition victory at Allen Fieldhouse by a score of 89-66.