PHILADELPHIA — The Kansas Jayhawks felt right at home. The Morris twins almost were.
The top-ranked team in the country looked like one in an 84-52 victory over No. 18 Temple on Saturday. The win was the Jayhawks’ ninth this season of at least 25 points and it snapped the Owls’ seven-game winning streak.
The sellout crowd of 10,206 was at least even, if not in favor of the Jayhawks, and it wasn’t all friends and family of the Morrises, who grew up 1½ miles from the Liacouras Center on the Temple campus.
“It was amazing especially since it’s probably the last time I’ll be able to play here in my college career,” said Marcus Morris, who had nine of his 13 points in Kansas’ big first-half run that gave the Jayhawks control of the game. “One of my major things was to get better and come back here and play before my family and friends.”
The sophomore’s teammates were glad for him and his brother but they weren’t surprised by the number of Kansas fans.
“There are Jayhawk fans all over the country. We saw them in Los Angeles and now in Philadelphia,” said center Cole Aldrich, who had 10 points and 10 rebounds. “I know the Morrises brought their family but there were a lot of others in the crimson and blue.”
Freshman Xavier Henry had 15 points and Sherron Collins scored 14 for the Jayhawks (13-0), who took their first 25-point lead with 9:25 to go when Marcus Morris’ layup made it 60-35.
Ryan Brooks and Juan Fernandez both had 11 points for the Owls (11-3), who already had a top-five win this season over then-No. 3 Villanova 75-65 on Dec. 13. They never really had a chance against No. 1.
“We didn’t play very well and we weren’t the smartest team we’ve ever had together,” Temple coach Fran Dunphy said, “but they made shots when they had to and they were relentless on the defensive end. … They have talent and depth and that’s a tough combination.”
The Jayhawks finished 30 of 55 from the field (54.5 percent), a number that reflected their dominance inside, considering Temple’s opponents were shooting 36.4 percent entering the game.
Marcus Morris had nine points in the 19-4 run that ended with the Jayhawks leading 38-31 with 2:19 left in the half. Marcus Morris had a three-point play to cap the 8-0 spurt that started the run and he closed it with a drive to the basket.
Kansas finished with a 43-31 advantage on the boards.
Markieff Morris had five points.
“I was especially happy for those two that they could come back here and leave with a win,” Kansas coach Bill Self said of the twins.
The Owls spread their offense to try taking the Kansas big men out of the game but they couldn’t connect from the outside, missing 12 of 16 3s in the first half, while the Jayhawks had a 26-6 edge in points in the paint.
Kansas led 40-23 at the half. Considering Temple came into the game third in the nation allowing 54.2 points per game, it was an impressive opening 20 minutes for the Jayhawks.
“We started getting stops on defense and executed our offense and got the ball moving,” said Collins, who scored Kansas’ first seven points of the game.
Fernandez, who came in averaging 14.3 points on 46.4 percent shooting from 3-point range, finished 3 of 16 from the field, including going 1 of 8 on 3s as the Owls finished 5 of 29 from beyond the arc.
“They have a lot of weapons and we started doing things that are uncharacteristic of us,” Brooks said. “They did what good, experienced teams do. When they sense weakness they take advantage of it and they did tonight. This is definitely a wake-up call for us, something we needed.”
Temple dropped to 2-13 against No. 1 teams, having lost its last six. The Owls’ first win over a top-ranked team was against Kansas in the Jimmy V Classic in 1995.
It was Temple’s worst loss since a 106-69 defeat by Wake Forest on Feb. 7, 1993.
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