Kansas beats BYU for spot in Maui title game
LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) David McCormack scored 16 points, Ochai Agbaji added 14 and No. 4 Kansas turned a huge second half into a trip to the Maui Invitational title game with a 71-56 victory over Brigham Young on Tuesday night.
The Jayhawks (5-1) dominated inside against the smaller Cougars and did a good job of rotating out to their shooters to earn a shot at their third Maui Invitational championship.
Kansas opened the second half with a big run to build a double-digit lead and outscored BYU 42-18 in the paint.
The Jayhawks will face Dayton in Wednesday's title game.
BYU (4-3) was bothered Kansas' length on defense, finishing 9 for 33 from behind the 3-point line. TJ Haws had 16 points, but Cougars leading scorer Jake Toolson was held to seven on 3-of-9 shooting.
Kansas overwhelmed Division II Chaminade 93-63 in its Maui opener by utilizing its massive size advantage.
The also-undersized Cougars used ball movement and perimeter shooting to blow past UCLA 78-63 in their opener.
Neither team was particularly efficient offensively early in the semifinals, trading turnovers and clanks on the soft Lahaina Civic Center rims.
The Jayhawks found a small semblance of rhythm late in the first half and locked on the Cougars defensively, holding them scoreless for 7 1/2 minutes.
BYU finally hit a few shots late and was within 29-27 at halftime.
Kansas got on a roll to start the second period by getting the ball inside, opening with a 13-2 run to go up 42-31.
The Jayhawks piled on after that with a 19-4 spurt and hit 17 of 32 shots in the second half.
BIG PICTURE
BYU pulled off one upset by knocking off UCLA in its opener, but had a hard time matching Kansas' size in the semifinals.
The Jayhawks shook off some early ugliness on offense with a dominant second half to earn a shot at adding to the 1996 and 2015 titles in their trophy case.
UP NEXT
Kansas plays Dayton in Wednesday's title game.
BYU faces Virginia Tech in the third-place game.
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