Roos Look to Stay Hot at Home Against Pios

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Starting Five

Kansas City Men's Basketball is at home on Thursday to take on Denver for the final game of the first cycle of Summit League play. Through the first seven games, KC holds a 3-4 record, with a chance to move to .500 in league play. Should the Roos win, it would be the second time since returning to the Summit League in 2020-21 that KC would stand at .500-or-better in its first meeting of the year with conference opponents. The last time it happened was in 2021-22, when the Roos were 6-3 during the first round of league play.
Jayson Petty was in rare form in the win against South Dakota last Saturday, scoring a career-high 21 points on 5-of-6 three-point shooting. Entering the game, Petty was shooting 17.8% (8-of-45) from three, but let it fly at a blazing 83.3% clip against the Coyotes. He became the second KC player this season to drop a 20-plus point performance, joining Jamar Brown, who has done so twice. The Roos are 3-0 this season when somebody hits the 20-point mark.
Kansas City was efficient from the field as a team against South Dakota, shooting at a 51.8% rate and knocking down 45.8% of its three-point attempts. It was just the second time this season that the Roos were above 50% from the field, and the first against a Division One team. The Roos are now 5-0 on the season when shooting 40% or better from long range.
While shooting well from distance themselves, the Roos held South Dakota to just 13.3% (2-of-15) shooting from three, including 0-of-8 shooting in the second half. It marks the second time this season that a Kansas City opponent has been held below 14% from behind the arc (SEMO on Nov. 30, 1-of-19), but is just the 11th time since the 2010-11 season that the Roos have held a DI opponent below that mark.
The Roos jumped out to a good start against South Dakota, holding the Coyotes to just 25 points in the first half, the sixth time this season that KC has held an opponent to 25-or-fewer points in a half. The Roos have won all six of those games, and all six have come on the Swinney Center floor.

Denver Notes

Denver enters Thursday's game with a 13-9 record, including a 4-3 mark in league play. After a thrilling overtime win over South Dakota last Thursday, the Pioneers dropped a game to Omaha on Saturday.
In the all-time series, Kansas City owns an 8-4 advantage over DU, including a 7-1 edge in games played in KC. Denver's lone win at the Swinney Center came on Jan. 17, 2022.
The Pios boast the nation's leading scorer in graduate guard Tommy Bruner. Bruner averages 26.1 points per game and has surpassed the 30-point mark in seven games this year.
As a team, Denver has one of the most prolific scoring offenses in the nation, averaging 85.5 points per contest, seventh-most in the NCAA.

Roos Look to Stay Hot at Home Against Pios

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Players Mentioned

Jamar Brown

Jayson Petty

Roos Look to Stay Hot at Home Against Pios

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Jamar Brown

Jayson Petty

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