Chris Beard, Texas’ coach, made the deliberate decision to remove the Kansas flotilla sharpshooters from their showdown at Allen Fieldhouse. The sixth-ranked Jayhawks were trying for a share in Saturday’s Big 12 title.

It worked for 40 minute.

It did not work during overtime.

The Jayhawks had few options for offense and turned to David McCormack, a bruising big man who gave a memorable senior evening sendoff. He scored 22 points and had 10 boards. He also went 10 for 10 from foul line, making the final dunk, and Kansas won 70-63.

Beard stated, “You can’t take everything away.” McCormack can be doubled and the shooters will be ready. We would have liked to see a few possessions back, but we are grateful for his efforts. Many of his field goals were simply tough March baskets.

Jalen Wilson scored 17 points and had 13 rebounds. Christian Braun added 13 points and 11 boards to help make up the loss of Ochai Agbaji. The Jayhawks won the No. The Jayhawks were the No. 1 seed in Big 12 Tournament.

They will face the Kansas State-West Virginia winner on Thursday in Kansas City, Missouri.

The Jayhawks tied it at 61 when Agbaji (who was 0-for-10 from that point) scored his only field goal with 2 minutes left in overtime. Courtney Ramey was unsuccessful at Texas’ other end. McCormack scored two foul shots to give Kansas a lead, before Wilson added two more for some breathing space.

McCormack’s dunk was the highlight of a great senior night performance by the big man in bruising.

He said, “It was certainly a battle throughout this game.” They fought hard. We are playing at home. We were aware of the stakes. We did exactly what was required. It’s a wonderful feeling to have all the hard work and practice that we put into it.

Ramey scored 18 points for the Longhorns (21/10, 10-8) who will be No. Open against fifth-seeded TCU in league tourney. Andrew Jones scored 12 points, while Timmy Allen scored nine with 2-for-15 shooting.

Beard stated, “I believe March needs to have three to four special performances.” “We get big games out of Jones and Ramey, but we kinda miss that third guy today.”

The Jayhawks almost won the game in regulation.

Agbaji was their national player-of-the year candidate. They then drafted the final play, but he was too weak and they had to call timeout at 2.2 seconds. Kansas also got the inbound, but Jalen Coleman Lands was awarded the ball. His swish from the corner, in front of his bench, came just after the buzzer.

The Jayhawks won the overtime game.

Ramey stated that “we fought one of the most talented teams in the country” and “just ran out of time.”

Texas controlled the first half. They went 5 of 8 from beyond arc after their 3-for-20 win against the Jayhawks. Agbaji, who was the Big 12’s top scorer, was held by the Longhorns to a 0-for-6 performance from the field.

Agbaji didn’t intend to say goodbye to Allen Fieldhouse.

The Jayhawks still managed to close on a big run and take a lead of 35-33 into the break.

Braun did the majority of the work. He made a tie 3-pointer with just under 2 minutes left. Then he hit another one with 1 minute remaining.

The officials actually spent the majority of the second half trying desperately to retake control of a game that was trending towards a rock fight.

This was evident in the Longhorns’ rapidly increasing foul trouble. Christian Bishop had already picked up his fourth, with 5:21 remaining, and Kansas was awarded the double bonus. Coach Chris Beard had three players on the brink of fouling out, Marcus Carr, his No. Brock Cunningham (6’6″), who had been fighting in the paint throughout the game, was the 2nd scorer.

It was fitting that a game no one led by more six in regulation went down to the wire.

Jones made his final 3-pointer to tie it at 55. The teams then traded free throws with Ramey making his first with 54 seconds remaining, putting the game squarely and sending it into overtime.

The Jayhawks handled everything from there.

Braun stated, “We had to beat Texas.” It didn’t matter how ugly it was.

BIG PICTURE

Texas sent the Jayhawks to Texas’ foul line 36 times. They made 28 of those shots and it was the difference. The Longhorns also had 15 turnovers and were outrebounded 49 to 42.

Kansas was in action for the third consecutive time after a rescheduled match against TCU. However, the Jayhawks were able to pull off another senior night win. Since the 1983-84 season, they have won 39 consecutive games.

UP NEXT

The Jayhawks will face off against the Longhorns in their quarterfinal match Thursday in Kansas City.