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PROVO — At the end of the night, the Kansas men's basketball team will return to Lawrence Regional Airport with as many minutes led in a basketball game in the Beehive State as when the Jayhawks started their two-game road trip.
Richie Saunders erupted for 22 points with three assists and four 3-pointers, and BYU shot 53% from the field in a wire-to-wire rout of the Jayhawks in a 91-57 win in front of a standing-room-only crowd of 17,978 fans at the Marriott Center.
Trevin Knell added 15 points, eight rebounds and four assists for the Cougars (18-7, 9-6 Big 12), and Mawot Mag scored 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting for a BYU squad that shot 55.9% from the perimeter.
Dallin Hall supplied 10 points and eight assists, and Keba Keita added 10 points, nine rebounds, two steals and two thunderous blocks that blew the roof off the gym. Was it the best game — or at least, most complete — of the season for BYU, which won its third straight and seventh in the last nine games?
"I think so," BYU coach Kevin Young said. "And we picked a good night to do it."
Boy, did they.
The win puts the Cougars alone in fifth place in the Big 12 Conference with five games remaining — and three of them on the road, including Saturday at No. 19 Arizona (8 p.m. MST, ESPN). There's also that tricky road spot March 4 at No. 8 Iowa State.
So Tuesday's win was significant for many reasons.
"I feel like this is just a continuation of the past couple of games," said Knell, who shot 4-of-7 from 3-point range — one of four players with multiple triples among BYU's 14 makes. "This is just another team win that we're stacking; every day in practice, we're competing and it's showing out on the court.
"It's a great team win, and I feel like it was a statement."
The Jayhawks return to Lawrence, Kansas, having not led for 40 consecutive minutes en route to losses in three of their last four games and four of their last six. It's the first time Kansas has lost by at least 30 points to an unranked opponent since the Associated Press first began ranking teams in 1938, according to the AP.
Hunter Dickinson had 12 points and 14 rebounds for Kansas (17-9, 8-7 Big 12), which lost back-to-back games for the first time all year.
"They whooped us today," Dickinson said. "They beat us by 36; I don't think there's anything personal about that. That's just one team that came out to play, and one team didn't."
BYU couldn't have started much better, with an 8-0 jump that included the 215th career 3-pointer and 1,000th point by Knell.
Mag had 7 points in the first seven minutes, capping a 14-2 run to put the Cougars up 22-7 and forced Kansas coach Bill Self to use his second timeout.
"I thought we were awful, and I thought they were great. I think BYU could've beaten anybody tonight," said Self, whose 34-point loss was one of the worst since he was named head coach in 2003 and the third-worst defeat in the program's storied history. "They were great — and we didn't do anything to make them play less than great.
"Our offense stunk, but that wasn't it," he added. "We couldn't stop them, or get any momentum to stop them."
But it didn't get much better.
Saunders poured in 14 points on a perfect 5-for-5 shooting, including four 3-pointers, and Knell canned four triples for 13 points as the Cougars shot 46.9% from the field with 10 3-pointers en route to a 46-26 halftime advantage.
BYU led by as much as 38 points midway in the second half, and never took its foot off the gas. The Cougars out-rebounded the Jayhawks 43-33, scored 15 points off 15 turnovers and assisted on 24-of-34 made field goals including five assists from Egor Demin.
"I think we're just hitting our stride right now at the right time of the year, playing our best brand of basketball," Hall said. "We're less concerned with the opponent in front of us, and more concerned with executing our side of things: the game plan on both sides. I thought we did a really good job of that. We're hitting our stride, and trying to put the country on notice."
