OAKLAND, Calif. Archbishop Mitty made 22 of 23 free throws and outrebounded Head-Royce 38-20 on its way to a 75-43 win over the Jayhawks on Friday. The loss dropped Head-Royce to 10-6 on the season.
Archbishop Mitty scored the first eight points of the game. Jack Peay answered with a 3-pointer off a feed from Micah Nyamuzuwe, but the visitors stretched the margin to 13-3. Head-Royce then put together a 7-0 run. Nick Taubes scored inside, Nyamuzuwe hit a second-chance 3-pointer and Bryce Clepper added a basket to pull the Jayhawks within 13-10. That was as close as Head-Royce would get. Archbishop Mitty rebuilt its lead to 31-19 before Sam Gulaid scored on consecutive possessions and Taubes made a free throw to cut the deficit to 31-24. After a Mitty basket off a turnover, a Nyamuzuwe basket made it 33-26 at halftime.
Nyamuzuwe kept scoring after the break. He had two more baskets early in the second half, and the second one made it 37-30. Archbishop Mitty then took control with a 10-0 run, capped by consecutive baskets off Head-Royce turnovers, to go up 47-30. Mikael Akpala ended the scoring drought, but the visitors made six free throws over the next several possessions and pushed the lead to 57-33. A later 7-0 run, made up of a 3-pointer and four free throws, moved the margin from 57-35 to 64-35. Head-Royce got baskets from Nyamuzuwe, Taubes, Akpala and Gulaid down the stretch, but Archbishop Mitty scored the final four points and finished with its largest lead of the night, 32 points.
Nyamuzuwe led Head-Royce with 13 points on 6-of-16 shooting and added six rebounds, two blocks and two assists before finishing with five fouls. Clepper scored all nine of his points in the first half, going 5 of 8 from the free throw line, and handed out three assists. Taubes added seven points and three rebounds. Off the bench, Gulaid made all three of his shots for six points and had a team-high eight rebounds and two blocks. Akpala finished with four points, three assists and three steals without a turnover.
Head-Royce shot 34.7 percent (17 of 49) and made 2 of 18 from 3-point range, while Archbishop Mitty shot 48.1 percent (26 of 54). The biggest gap came at the free throw line, where the visitors went 22 of 23 and the Jayhawks went 7 of 14. Archbishop Mitty grabbed 11 offensive rebounds and scored 14 second-chance points, twice as many as Head-Royce's seven. The visitors also scored 10 points off 11 Head-Royce turnovers, while the Jayhawks got two points off seven Archbishop Mitty turnovers. Gulaid and Alex Jones accounted for all seven of Head-Royce's bench points.
Head-Royce never led and never tied the game, and the Jayhawks now stand at 10-6 in the 2024-25 season.