Neither team came right out and made an early statement, but as this one went on, there was little doubt as to who the much better team was. Dedric Lawson made it clear early that Northeastern didn't have a good answer for his offense, scoring the first seven points for the Jayhawks.
On the other side, Northeastern made it clear that concerns about them getting too many good looks from three were not without merit. The game was tied at 9 before Devon Dotson led a 9-2 run, which gave the Jayhawks an 18-11 lead, their biggest to that point. Some sloppy play on both ends got the Huskies right back into the game. However, they soon ran into a cold shooting streak and Kansas took advantage. The Jayhawks began to find some very good looks around the rim, and used an 11-0 run to make it 31-19.
Kansas would take a 37-25 lead into the locker room at the half. The defense actually tightened up well on the Huskies' perimeter game as the half went on, and allowed virtually nothing in the paint. Lawson put up 16 points with seven boards in the first half, while Dotson scored nine.
The Jayhawks then started cold in the second half. They had three turnovers in the first three minutes, allowing the Huskies to score the first five points of the half in that span. Bill Self called a timeout and KU responded with a 10-0 run to make it 47-30 with about 14:30 to go.
Shortly afterward, Kansas had a scary moment when Dotson landed awkwardly and appeared to hurt his left ankle. Fortunately, he only sat for a few minutes and didn't appear to be suffering any lingering effects. Down the stretch, the Jayhawks absolutely locked down the Huskies' offensive game and continued to click on the other end. The game was never in any doubt after that early second half run for Northeastern, and KU cruised to a dominant 87-53 victory.
Dedric Lawson was the biggest contributor with 25 & 11 (his 21st double double this year), but his brother KJ logged a surprising number of minutes, scoring 13 of his own. Dotson was huge with 18 points, and Ochai Agbaji bounced back from his recent slump with 13 points and five boards.
Kansas will now face 5 seed Auburn Saturday in Salt Lake City.