<table> </table> LAWRENCE | For 36 minutes, this Sunflower Showdown was played on a sinusoidal wave, up, down, back, forth, hold onto your hat or you may never see it again.</p><p>But on a night of breathtaking runs, four boring minutes in the second half when the margin didn&#8217;t change may have been the most important for the Kansas Jayhawks, who pushed and withstood and pushed again for an 87-71 victory over rival Kansas State on Tuesday night in Allen Fieldhouse.</p><p>For those four minutes, KU was freshman guard Tyshawn Taylor&#8217;s team. Sherron Collins and Cole Aldrich were on the bench with four fouls apiece. The way the Wildcats had played all night after falling behind 18-0, it seemed a perfect time for K-State to make yet another run.</p><p>But Taylor was in control. And, for the first time this season, he began to really enjoy it.</p><p>&#8220;I wasn&#8217;t really a point guard in high school,&#8221; Taylor said. &#8220;I feel like I have the game in my hands. I like feeling like that.&#8221;</p><p>Taylor finished with 20 points, four rebounds and three assists for his best game as a Jayhawk. Collins led KU with 24 points, five rebounds and four assists. The KU backcourt thoroughly dominated K-State&#8217;s Denis Clemente and Jacob Pullen, who combined to make eight of 28 shots.</p><p>Collins knew what this game meant for Taylor, who had been struggling of late under the heat from KU coach Bill Self. Collins remembered how his first big game came against rival Missouri when he was a freshman. At KU, players tend to announce their arrival on big stages like Tuesday night&#8217;s.</p><p>&#8220;This game put Tyshawn on the map,&#8221; Collins said.</p><p>&#8220;Everybody&#8217;s going to key on me and Cole. Today they probably didn&#8217;t respect Tyshawn. He came out and got some respect.&#8221;</p><p>The Jayhawks, now 12-4 and 1-0 in the Big 12, found some help for Collins and Aldrich. It wasn&#8217;t just Taylor. KU got 36 points from newcomers Taylor, Mario Little, Markieff Morris and Marcus Morris.</p><p>&#8220;That was one of the most encouraging things,&#8221; Self said. &#8220;We played really good ball without (Collins and Aldrich) in the game. We at least were able to maintain.&#8221;</p><p>Maintenance was neither team&#8217;s strong suit. Newtonian physics reigned as the two bitter rivals battled in front of 16,300 fans. KU scored the first 18 points of the game, then discovered that Isaac Newton was right when he theorized that what goes up must come down. K-State, of course, deserved much of the credit. The Wildcats trimmed KU&#8217;s lead to 45-42 early in the second half using more guts than gravity.</p><p>&#8220;We fought our way back into it,&#8221; Pullen said. &#8220;Every time we crawled back into it we fouled or didn&#8217;t get a stop.&#8221;</p><p>The one constant on this roller-coaster evening was Taylor. Collins and Aldrich had their usual games &#8212; Aldrich had 15 points and eight rebounds &#8212; but Taylor was the one who manned the floor for 34 minutes.</p><p>&#8220;That was arguably his best game,&#8221; Self said. &#8220;He&#8217;s kind of been, as (Dick) Vitale would say, a Dow Joneser. He&#8217;s been up and down, lately he&#8217;s been down. He&#8217;s shown flashes where he could be one of the premier freshmen in the country. Tonight he was confident. He drove that ball hard to the rack.&#8221;</p><p>Taylor shot 13 free throws, making nine. He noticed a difference after months of listening to Self&#8217;s bombardment of commands.</p><p>&#8220;My confidence wasn&#8217;t as high as it was earlier in the season,&#8221; Taylor said. &#8220;That&#8217;s just because Coach has been on me a little bit harder. I guess that&#8217;s just something all freshmen go through. I felt so good today. I felt a lot more confident.&#8221;</p><p>With Collins and Aldrich on the bench for much of the night, Taylor really had no choice.</p><p>&#8220;I felt like I had to score,&#8221; Taylor said. &#8220;They&#8217;ve been playing a lot of minutes, scoring most of our points, and I just felt like I had to step up. I&#8217;ve been hearing a lot about Tyshawn not playing good. I felt like, &#8216;Man, this is my time.&#8217; &#8221;</p><p><hr class="infobox-hr-separator" /> <div class="infobox"> @ Go to <strong>KansasCity.com</strong> for a photo gallery and to talk about the game in our forums.</p><p></div> <hr class="infobox-hr-separator" /> <div class="infobox"> @ Go to <strong>KansasCity.com</strong> for analysis of Tuesday&#8217;s game at <strong>Upon Further Review</strong>.</p><p></div>