In a battle for first place in the Big 12 Conference, the No. 5 Kansas Jayhawks were victorious, defeating the No. 13 Texas Tech Red Raiders 94-91 in double overtime on Monday.
Kansas’ Ochai Agbaji had a career-high 37 points to outduel Texas Tech’s Bryson Williams, who finished with 33 points. Agbaji scored 24 of his points after halftime and made seven of the eight total three-pointers scored by the Jayhawks on the night.
Kansas (17-2, 6-1 Big 12) avenged their lone conference loss earlier this season when Texas Tech (15-5, 5-3) defeated the Jayhawks 75-67 on January 8 in Lubbock. In that game, the Red Raiders were without arguably their two best players, Kevin McCullar and Terrence Shannon Jr., yet still came out victorious.
They were in the lineup on Monday night but did not make much of a positive difference for Texas Tech. McCullar and Shannon Jr. combined to make just 2-of-17 shot attempts for seven points. Both appeared uncomfortable and out of rhythm all night, perhaps due to playing in front of a raucous Kansas home crowd.
With McCullar and Shannon, Jr., having poor games, Williams essentially carried the Red Raiders offense. At halftime, the Jayhawks held a 36-30 lead, then Williams caught fire, scoring 11 points in the first eight minutes of the second half and bringing the deficit to three points.
Kansas answered with an 8-0 run to extend the lead to double-digits for the first time all game. When the Jayhawks took their biggest lead of the night at 70-58, the Red Raiders responded by scoring six straight points to start a 17-5 run to finish regulation.
Shannon, Jr., scored two free throws to tie the game at 75 with 13 seconds left, then Agbaji’s last-second three-pointer was off-target to send the game into overtime.
Texas Tech held an 85-80 lead in the first overtime with less than two minutes left. Then, Agbaji took over and scored a layup with 1:09 remaining, then a three-pointer with seven seconds left to tie the score at 86. Kansas closed the first overtime on a 6-1 run.
The Red Raiders took a 91-89 lead in the second overtime before a layup from the Jayhawks’ K.J. Adams tied the score at 91 with 1:39 left. Kansas then scored the game’s last three points from the free-throw line. Shannon, Jr., missed a three-pointer in the last few seconds that would have tied the game.
A significant difference from the team’s meeting earlier in the season was points in the paint. In the January 8 game, the Jayhawks managed to score only 18 points in the paint the entire game. On Monday night, Kansas had 18 points in the paint by halftime.
The Jayhawks now hold a one-game lead over the Baylor Bears for first place in the Big 12 conference. The Red Raiders drop to third place for now, with more Big 12 intra-conference games this week pending.
Texas Tech knows how hard it is to win on the road against Kansas. The Red Raiders are now 1-21 all-time playing at the Jayhawks’ home arena, Allen Fieldhouse.
