If this is how all the games between ranked Big 12 Conference teams are going to play out, fans of the league are in for a wild and bumpy ride.
Ochai Agbaji cut through the lane for a layup on an inbounds play to put 5th-ranked Kansas up by a point with 13 seconds left, and Jalen Wilson blocked Terrance Shannon's shot on the other end of the floor right before time expired to lift the Jayhawks to a 58-57 victory against No. 14-ranked Texas Tech on Thursday in Lubbock.
Those two points were the last of Agbaji's 23 points in a game during which the teams' defenses controlled most of the action. Marcus Garrett added 10 points, 10 rebounds and four assists for Kansas (7-1, 1-0 Big 12).
Mac McClung led the Red Raiders (6-2, 0-1) with 21 points, buoyed by a big first half. Shannon notched 20, including 13 in the second half, and buried four 3-pointers.
Texas Tech seemed to have control midway through the second half when Micah Peavy's jump shot extended the lead to 46-39. But the Jayhawks responded with a 10-0 surge and regained the lead when Dajuan Harris knocked down a 3-pointer with 7:18 remaining. It was the last of Kansas' four makes from outside the arc in the second half.
The rest of the game went back-and-forth, with both teams coming up big on both ends until the final seconds when the Jayhawks produced the game-winner and the Red Raiders couldn't respond.
Kansas led 29-26 at halftime, sparked by Agbaji's 12 points on 4-of-5 shooting from the floor. He also connected on 3 of 4 attempts from the free-throw line to help the Jayhawks go 9 of 10 from the stripe.
Texas Tech struggled to connect from the field in the opening 20 minutes, making only 9 of 28 (32.1 percent) attempts. McClung, who had been in a three-game shooting slump, kept the Red Raiders in range with 13 points but was the only Texas Tech player to make more than two field goals in the first half.
--Field Level Media
Kansas | Texas Tech | |
Ochai Agbaji 23 | Scoring | Mac McClung 21 |
Marcus Garrett 4 | Assists | Marcus Santos-Silva 3 |
Christian Braun 10 | Rebounds | Terrence Shannon Jr. 9 |
Marcus Garrett 4 | Free Throws Made | Mac McClung 9 |
Marcus Garrett 1 | Steals | Nimari Burnett 3 |
Ochai Agbaji 1 | Blocks | Marcus Santos-Silva 2 |
Team | Points | FG% | 3PM-3PA | FTM-FTA | Assists | Rebounds | Blocks | Steals | Turnovers |
Kansas | 58 | 40.4 | 6-18 | 14-15 | 13 | 36 | 3 | 3 | 16 |
Texas Tech | 57 | 32.3 | 6-23 | 11-18 | 8 | 29 | 3 | 5 | 7 |