The Spartans have already played the Jayhawks this season, defeating them 75-62 on Jan. 10 at Breslin Center.

“I’m very pleased, obviously, that we won,” Kansas head coach Bill Self said. “But also, because I thought it was a toughness game, loose ball game.”

Dayton star Chris Wright paced his team with 10 points and nine rebounds, but shot just 4-of-16 from the field. As a team, Dayton shot a ghastly 22.2 percent from the field.

“Obviously, (I’m) disappointed for the season to end because this has been such a great group to be around,” Dayton head coach Brian Gregory said. “Our defense and our rebounding kept us in a lot of the game. And give them credit, their defensive game plan was good.”

At 43.4 percent, the Jayhawks didn’t shoot well either but they controlled the glass and got great production from their two stars.

Doing all of his work inside the painted area, Aldrich finished with 13 points, 20 rebounds and 10 blocks.

After making the opening basket of the game, Dayton missed 10 straight shots to help Kansas build an 11-2 lead.

Kansas extended its lead to 21-11 with 8:18 left in the half, but the Flyers responded with a 10-2 run over the next several minutes to pull within two.

After a timeout, the Jayhawks held Dayton to just two more points over the last five minutes into the half. Kansas, which received nine points and 11 first-half rebounds from Aldrich, took momentum and a 29-23 lead into halftime.

Dayton, which shot 22.5 percent from the field in the first half, was even worse to begin the second half, missing five of its first six shots.

But Kansas couldn’t extend its lead to double digits until Collins dropped a nifty finger roll with 12:37 left that put the Jayhawks up 40-30.

Unlike the first half, Dayton wasn’t able to stop the bleeding.

The Flyers continued to miss shots and Kansas continued to pull away, extending its lead to as many as 22 with 1:20 left.