Texas Longhorns outlast Kansas Jayhawks 79-76
End-of-half meltdowns were the name of the game for the No. 8 Kansas Jayhawks on Monday night, with disasters before halftime and right before the final horn sending them to their doom in a 79-76 loss to Texas.
With the loss, KU slips to 8-2 in Big 12 play and ends its stretch of five straight games against ranked opponents at 3-2.
The mess that ended the first half sent the Jayhawks to the break down by five. After a jumper by Texas guard Andrew Jones, freshman Bobby Pettiford, who checked into the game ice cold, turned the ball over with eight seconds to go in the half. Marcus Carr made KU pay for the error, drilling a three pointer right before the buzzer to extend the UT lead.
What was even more nightmarish, though, was the way the Jayhawks collapsed in the waning moments of the game. Kansas held a four-point advantage with just under a minute to play before Texas's Tre Mitchell who was 0-of-6 from beyond the arc up to that point, banked in a three to cut the deficit to one.
KU didn't score again but did surrender two turnovers, which led directly to another four Texas points. One of those was a drive by Dajuan Harris, who dribbled for the entire possession before losing the ball on a drive toward the basket.
"It was just a play we drew up and it was going to be open, but things happen during the game and that's just what happened," KU's Jalen Wilson said, regarding the Harris turnover.
In a final, painful and almost cruelly poetic blow, emblematic of the meltdown, Wilson missed two free throws with just 2.3 seconds to go, his only misses of the game in eight attempts. The first miss was especially crushing, since it killed any chances of getting a last-gasp two pointer to tie the game.
While the intensely physical nature of the game was the overarching theme of the night, the turnover battle and the Jayhawks' resounding defeat in that category was the next biggest plot. Kansas committed 15 turnovers in the game, notably the three aforementioned backbreakers, compared to just seven for Texas.
Wilson ended up leading the Jayhawks in scoring with 18 points, followed by 16 points and a commendable physical effort by David McCormack. Christian Braun and Ochai Agbaji also scored in double figures, contributing 13 and 11 points, respectively.
Agbaji was limited to just seven field goal attempts, his fewest in a game this season, largely thanks to the defensive effort of the Longhorns' Courtney Ramey.
Joseph Yesefu's recent emergence continued and was one of KU's biggest bright spots in Monday night's loss, scoring eight points on 3-of-4 shooting off the bench.
KU had a far more efficient shooting day than Texas, shooting 58.3% from the floor and 38.5% from three-point range, compared to just 41.8% and 15%, respectively, for the Longhorns.
Texas was led by a game-high 24 points from Timmy Allen, including the go-ahead jumper in the final minute of the game.
Kansas now has five days until its next game, when it will try to reclaim its momentum at home against Oklahoma Saturday at noon.
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