Kansas Advances to Big 12 Title Game With 75-62 Win Over TCU

Both Kansas and TCU were looking for deja vu on Friday after Kansas jumped out to a big first-half lead for the second straight game and led by 14 at halftime. TCU had overcome an 18-point halftime deficit on Thursday to beat Texas and was hoping to duplicate that second-half spurt. But the Jayhawks were having none of that and advanced to the Big 12 Championship Game Saturday with a 75-62 victory.

TCU was enthusiastic early, jumping out to a quick 4-0 lead, but it would only go downhill from there. Mitch Lightfoot checked in with Kansas up 10-9 and promptly picked up where he left off Thursday, scoring back-to-back buckets on his way to a career high 15 points. Ochai Agbaji was also hot early, scoring 13 points as KU stretched the lead to 31-18.

But the story of the first half was the defense. Kansas forced TCU into three shot-clock violations in the first 20 minutes of action, while not turning it over themselves until the 6:30 mark of the half.

The Horned Frogs did their best to play comeback kids, cutting the lead to eight in the second half at 52-44. But that would be as close as it got. Braun immediately scored before Lightfoot got his 10th point of the game. And then it was Remy Martin who had his best offensive performance in months, scoring 10 points to go with three rebounds and three assists.

If there were any lingering questions, Lightfoot knocked down a three to stretch the margin to 63-45 and then Martin grabbed a rare Agbaji airball from three and scored on the putback. But the exclamation point of the second half was a thunderous alley-oop dunk by Agbaji that will be shown in the intro video at Allen Fieldhouse for years to come. Wilson then hit a three to give Kansas its largest lead of the game at 72-52.

TCU went on a final run with the game in hand, but for the second straight game, the Jayhawks were able to go to the end of the bench. This should make Kansas fairly rested heading into its third game in three days tomorrow.

Agbaji led all scorers with 22 points on 9-17 shooting and three rebounds, while Lightfoot and Martin joined him in double figures. Christian Braun finished with nine points and six rebounds, while Wilson also chipped in nine points and dished out five assists.

Kansas will look to cut down the net—and lock up a one seed in the NCAA Tournament, if it hasn’t already—at 5 p.m. central Saturday.