LAWRENCE, Kan. — With the conference’s two leading rebounders in town, the battle on the block between KU forward Thomas Robinson and ISU forward Royce White was highly anticipated heading into Saturday’s showdown.

The two did not disappoint.

Combining for 29 points and 31 rebounds the tandem patrolled the paint all afternoon with Kansas coming out on top in a 82-73 home win.

“I thought we battled the heck out of him,” said ISU coach Fred Hoiberg of his team’s effort defending Robinson. “He’s a big time player, as good a big as there is in the country he’s going to have a very long career playing at the top level.”

The Big 12’s third-leading scorer and leading rebounder, Robinson nearly matched White’s 10 points and 10 rebounds in the first half scoring 10 and pulling down seven rebounds. However, in the second half, Iowa State’s bigs did not allow the Washington D.C. native a shot, scoring only one point on a free throw and grabbing four rebounds.

“I thought Melvin [Ejim], who gives up a couple inches to him, fought the heck out of him early, I thought everybody we put in there did a nice job,” Hoiberg said.

Robinson compared Iowa State’s defensive effort to that of USC, which held him to 10 points and nine rebounds in a 16-point KU win back on Dec. 22.

“We won, so [the game] is always going to be successful as long as we get the ‘W,'” Robinson said. “It’s nothing new, but a couple teams have guarded me better than others. This is kind of similar to what USC did. It was definitely tough, but we have a lot of good players on this team.”

One of those players that stepped up for the Jayhawks (14-3, 4-0 Big 12) was 7-foot junior center Jeff Withey, who finished with 13 points, 11 rebounds and seven blocks.

“Robinson was out of the game, so I knew I had to rebound and guard the paint,” Withey said. “I knew I had to pick it up for the team because without Thomas in there, it’s really tough.”

The play of Withey combined with a 22-point second half for junior guard Tyshawn Taylor helped the Jayhawks overcome Robinson’s second-half struggles.

“A lot of good things happened,” said KU coach Bill Self. “We played our best ball with [Robinson] out of the game. That should give us confidence when he gets in foul trouble moving forward.”

Withey, the Big 12 leader in blocks, recorded six of his seven blocks in the second half including three during Kansas’ 17-2 run.

“He’s a long dude, that’s a tough front line to play against,” Hoiberg said.

After being out-rebounded by 11 in its loss on Wednesday to Missouri, Hoiberg challenged his team to win the rebounding margin on Saturday. The Cyclones (12-5, 2-2) responded, becoming only the third team this season to out-rebound the Jayhawks winning the battle on the glass 49-41.

“To out-rebound these guys as physical and big as they are by eight on the road was a great feat for us, but we’re not about moral victories here,” Hoiberg said. “We played hard we had great effort, you’ve got to find a way to win these so we’ll get back at it, watch a lot of film see what we need to work on and try again on Wednesday against Okie State.”

Iowa State and Oklahoma State (9-8, 2-2 Big 12) will tip off at 8 p.m. on Wednesday at Hilton Coliseum.