RENO, Nev. (AP)—Keith Langford scored 19 points and Wayne Simien had 15 points and 16 rebounds to help No. 6 Kansas beat UC Santa Barbara 72-52 on Saturday in the Wolf Pack Holiday Classic.
Freshman J.R. Giddens added 15 points, and Aaron Miles scored all 13 of his points in the second half for the Jayhawks (6-1).
Kansas shot 62 percent from the field in the second half after making only 24 percent the first half.
Casey Cook scored a team-high 16 points for the Gauchos (5-3), who turned the ball over 26 times.
Miles had five steals and five assists for Kansas, which plays Nevada on Sunday night. He scored nine points during a 19-4 run to open the second half, including a steal and a layup to put Kansas up 43-22 at 13:13.
The closest Santa Barbara came after that was 64-48 on Jacoby Atako’s 3-pointer with 3:13 left in the game.
Kansas missed 20 of its first 25 shots from the field, including a seven-minute stretch without a field goal before Giddens hit a 3-pointer for a 17-10 lead 5:37 before the half. He hit another just before the halftime buzzer to put the Jayhawks ahead 24-18.
Langford hit 8-of-15 for the game and 3-of-4 free throws, scoring 15 of his points in the second half to become the 46th Jayhawks player to reach the 1,000-point plateau.
Simien had 12 rebounds in the first half for the Jayhawks, who wore crimson uniforms for the first time since the 1986 Final Four in Dallas.
Josh Davis added eight points for Santa Barbara, which will play Alabama State on Sunday.