LAWRENCE, Kan. — The last time Kansas had to come back from a 15-point deficit at halftime was on college basketball’s biggest stage.
The Jayhawks certainly wouldn’t be intimidated by one in Allen Fieldhouse.
With another vociferous home crowd behind them, the nation’s No. 4 team quickly erased the huge lead Oklahoma State had struggled to build. And when KJ Adams scored the go-ahead basket with 4.8 seconds remaining, the Jayhawks stopped the Cowboys twice at the other end to earn a 69-67 win for both teams in Saturday’s Big 12 opener.
“There are no 15-point games,” said Jalen Wilson, who was instrumental in helping the Jayhawks come from the same hole to beat North Carolina for the national title, “so the main thing was to win every 4 minutes , and that’s what we did.”
Wilson finished the tournament with 20 points and Adams had 14 to lead the Jayhawks (12-0), who were 45-30 down at the break before a 22-5 run erased the deficit and sent them to their 32nd straight win at the conference opening.
“It could have gone to 20 real quick, or we could get it down to 10,” Wilson said. “We all came together, shook off the first half and understood that we were home. Fifteen points may seem like a lot, but it’s not.”
The Cowboys (8-5) didn’t give up after the comeback and found themselves in the lead again in the closing minutes.
Kansas recovered the 3-pointer from Kevin McCullar Jr. with 45 seconds left, and Wilson added two free throws moments later to extend the lead to 67-64. But the Cowboys’ Bryce Thompson, who started his career in Kansas and set a career-high 23 points, drilled his own 3-pointer by 14.8 seconds to tie the game at 67.
The Jayhawks ran onto the court, brought the ball to Adams and he made a skillful lay-in to regain the lead.
“We’re always doing games where I’m showing them off and running them really fast,” Adams said. “It was just like that.”
Oklahoma State lost the ball at the other end trying to score in the transition, and with 1.1 seconds left on the clock, the Cowboys got the inbounds pass to Thompson, whose shot was hit from behind. A final inbounds pass was knocked away.
Thompson hit seven 3-pointers but had to deal with foul problems in the second half for the Cowboys, who have lost four straight games and nine of their last 10 to the Jayhawks. John-Michael Wright also had four 3s and ended up with 19 points.
“We gave each other a chance until the end,” said Cowboys coach Mike Boynton, “but there are no moral victories.”
The last instruction the state of Oklahoma received before the notice came on a whiteboard held by an employee: “Alert The Lob Backdoor.” The Cowboys shut that down and pretty much everything else.
McCullar had three turnovers in the first 5 minutes and four at halftime. Adams also had four in the half. And one of the two 3-pointers that Gradey Dick hit was a bank of desperation high above the glass.
Oklahoma State capitalized on the other end, using wide-open skip passes for their own easy 3s. Thompson hit four of them in the first 15 minutes, and two more tries were halfway down before rebounding. Wright’s fall-away 3 with 1:56 left forced Kansas to time out, and his buzzer-beater gave Oklahoma State a 45-30 lead at halftime.
The Cowboys were out of the arc 9 of 18 in the first half. Kansas had 11 turnovers.
Then came the comeback.
It started when DaJuan Harris Jr. drilled a 3 in front of the Kansas bench. It went on for 11 straight points after Thompson hit another 3 of his own. And when Wilson hit a 3-pointer with 10:54 to go, the Jayhawks had ridden a 22-5 surge to not only close their halftime deficit but take their first lead in the opening minutes.
However, Kansas could not break away. And that led to a hectic last 10 minutes.
“This is exactly the same as the national championship,” said Jayhawks coach Bill Self. “You turn it up, tie it earlier than expected, and then it becomes a basketball game.”
BIG PICTURE
State of Oklahoma. The pressure from Allen Fieldhouse was evident in the second half. The Cowboys’ first three possessions ended in a miss, another miss when the shot clock sounded, and a shot clock violation. By the time they got their legs under them, Kansas had erased their advantage and made for a tense finish.
Kansas: Even during the Jayhawks’ 22-5 run in the second half, when they were goalless on three consecutive possessions, their defense prevented Oklahoma State from regaining momentum. It helped that they only shot it once after the break.
NEXT
Oklahoma State: Plays 24th-ranked West Virginia Monday night.
Kansas: On Tuesday evening we go to Texas Tech.
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