LAWRENCE, Kan. — Nobody else was doing much scoring for No. 10 Kansas on Monday night. Nobody else was rebounding or playing much defense, either.
Jeff Withey stepped up and did all three.
And etched his name in the school’s record books, too.
The senior center had 16 points, 12 rebounds and a school-record 12 blocks and the Jayhawks held off a furious comeback by San Jose State for a 70-57 victory.
“He was the only guy who played worth a flip,” Kansas Coach Bill Self said. “He did a good job covering up for a lot of mistakes, because we made a ton of them tonight.”
Withey scored 10 points during a 20-2 run early in the second half, and achieved the Jayhawks’ first triple double since Cole Aldrich in an NCAA Tournament game against Dayton in 2010 when the 7-footer blocked Xavier Jones’ shot with 7:43 left in the game.
“I’ve been wanting that for a while now, and it’s only me and Cole that have it, so it’s pretty special to me,” Withey said.
“They kept on driving in and, you know, I just kept on blocking it. It’s what I do.”
Kansas (5-1) certainly needed every last one of them after taking a 60-36 lead with just over 11 minutes left, and then watching the Spartans (2-3) go on an 18-2 run.
The Jayhawks finally put it away when Elijah Johnson hit a floater with just over a minute left for a 66-57 lead, and when Withey’s rejection of J.D. Brown turned into a run-out that Ben McLemore finished off with a windmill dunk with about 30 seconds remaining.
“We didn’t back down,” San Jose State Coach George Nessman said. “We kept bucking up and sticking our chest out there, and that was important for us.”
James Kinney stuck his chest out the farthest, scoring 19 of his 30 points in the second half for the Spartans.At one point, the senior guard scored nine in a span of about 90 seconds as San Jose State was mounting its big second half charge.
“I wasn’t going to give up. I’m not going to get embarrassed out here,” Kinney said. “Once everyone saw I was going to keep fighting, they just tagged along.”
McLemore finished with 13 points despite missing all seven of his three-point attempts, and Travis Releford also had 13 points for the Jayhawks. Kevin Young added eight rebounds.
SEC MEN
TENNESSEE 77, OAKLAND 50
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - Jarnell Stokes scored 19 points and went 7 of 8 from the floor as Tennessee relied on suffocating defense to roll to a victory over cold-shooting Oakland.
Oakland shot just 28.6 percent (16 of 56) overall and went 2 of 16 from three-point range. The Golden Grizzlies (2-5) were coming off a 70-52 loss at Michigan State on Friday in which they shot 27.6 percent (16 of 58), their worst field-goal percentage since joining NCAA Division I in 1999.
Trae Golden added 18 points and seven assists with only one turnover for the Volunteers (4-1). Tennessee shot52.8 percent (28 of 53) overall and 71 percent (22 of 31) from inside the three point line.
Oakland had beaten Tennessee each of the last two years, but the Golden Grizzlies never had a chance Monday. Tennessee (4-1) took an early 15-2 lead and never looked back.
Travis Bader scored 18 points and Corey Petros added 10 points for Oakland.
TEXAS A&M 78, NORTHWESTERN STATE 65
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Texas A&M used a dominating performance in the lane, outscoring the Demons 42-18 from the inside and defeating Northwestern State.
Four Aggies scored at least 10 points, with senior Elston Turner leading the way with 17 points, followed by J’Mychal Reese’s 15 points.
Texas A&M led 38-28 at halftime, as Fabyon Harris, Elston Turner and Ray Turner scored eight points each over the first 20 minutes.
The Aggies led the Demons 46-38 four minutes into the second half before putting away Northwestern State (3-2) with a 10-0 run over the next five minutes, a stretch keyed by three layups from Reese. His steal and resulting layup lifted the Aggies to a 56-38 lead with 11:33 remaining.
Demons guard Brison White, who was averaging 8.3 points entering the contest, exited with nine minutes remaining in the second half with a right ankle injury.
Sports, Pages 20 on 11/27/2012