LAWRENCE, Kan. — Kevin McCullar Jr. had a career-high 25 points, KJ Adams scored 16 of his 18 points in the second half, and second-ranked Kansas struggled to hold off scrappy Kansas City in a 88-69 victory Tuesday night.

Hunter Dickinson added 14 and 11 rebounds for the Jayhawks (8-1), who appeared to be caught looking ahead — or behind — in a pitfall-type game between their win over No. 5 UConn last week and their game against bitter rival Missouri on Saturday.

Cameron Faas and Khristion Courseault scored 18 points apiece to lead the Roos (6-3), who trailed by eight with 3 1/2 minutes left before the Jayhawks scored 10 straight points to put the game away.

The Jayhawks initially looked as if they carried the momentum from their win over the Huskies into Tuesday night. They opened on a 14-4 run, followed with a 15-3 charge fueled by easy transition buckets, and they eventually built a 31-11 lead.

Undaunted, the Roos responded by outscoring their mighty neighbor to the west 19-14 heading into the break, then kept coming in the second half. And the most fight Kansas showed for long stretches came from Dickinson, their 7-foot-2 standout, when he had enough of Allen David Mukeba leaning on him and gave the Roos’ forward a two-handed shove to the floor.

The Jayhawks pushed the lead to 75-57 with just under five minutes left, but the Roos scored 10 unanswered points on just three trips down the floor, forcing Kansas coach Bill Self to call two timeouts in rapid succession.

Kansas scored 10 consecutive points out of the last timeout to lock up the win.

THE TAKEAWAY

Kansas City is still winless in nine tries against the Jayhawks but should be emboldened by playing one of the nation’s top teams tight most of the game. And that could bode well when Summit League play begins.

Kansas has shown a troubling propensity for playing down to the opposition this season. The Jayhawks similarly struggled to a 71-63 win over Eastern Illinois last week.

UP NEXT

Kansas City plays Lindenwood, which moved up to Division I last year, on Saturday.

Kansas welcomes the Tigers back to Allen Fieldhouse on Saturday.

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TOPEKA — A south-central Kansas public school choir teacher taught middle school students Christian worship songs centering around loving Jesus, such as “Praise His Holy Name,” and made students listen to Bible lessons, according to a national watchdog group’s report.

The Freedom from Religion Foundation, a national nonprofit geared toward the separation of state and church, urged the district to stop the practice in late November after a concerned district parent reached out to them.

“It’s not a teacher’s job to convert a student to their religion, no matter what tools they use to do so,” said FRF co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor in a news release.

The parent told the FRF that a teacher at Challenger Intermediate School in the Goddard school district had been teaching sixth-graders religious songs since late October, including “Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel.”

Lyrics of the song “Praise His Holy Name” has such lines as “Jesus, Jesus, how I love Thee! Shout Hallelujah!” and “There’s a cross for ev’ryone and there’s a cross for me.” 

“Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel” is a song encouraging people to pray for salvation. The song includes such lines as “The wind blows east and the wind blows west / It blows like the judgment day / And ev’ry poor soul that never did pray / Will be glad to pray that day.”

The teacher allegedly also taught lessons on the biblical story of Daniel, a story that is meant to encourage belief and worship of the Abrahamic God.

FRF legal fellow Samantha Lawrence sent district superintendent Justin Henry a letter warning of these constitutional violations on Nov. 29.

“There is no need for a public intermediate school choral program to select religious worship music for students, and it is plainly unconstitutional for a public school choir teacher to teach students Bible lessons,” Lawrence wrote.

“By coercing sixth-grade students to sing overtly Christian worship music in its choral program, the district demonstrates favoritism towards religion over nonreligion, and Christianity over all other faiths,” she added. “This favoritism towards Christianity needlessly alienates all students and families, such as our complainant and their child, who do not subscribe to Christianity.”

Henry’s response to the letter, as reported by the FRF, was to inform the teacher of constitutional rights and violations.

“Since receiving your email on Nov. 29, we have had the opportunity to provide (the teacher) this information and will be planning a meeting with all district choir instructors to ensure they understand the information,” Henry said.

A spokesman for the district didn’t immediately answer questions from Kansas Reflector.

The Kansas State Wildcats will host the Villanova Wildcats on Tuesday in the 2023 Big East-Big 12 Battle. Kansas State is 6-2 overall and 5-0 at home, while Villanova is 6-3 overall and 0-1 on the road. This is the first matchup between these programs.

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