LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — Ochai Agbaji acquired broad open once more to take an inbound cross and made the go-ahead layup…
LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — Ochai Agbaji acquired broad open once more to take an inbound cross and made the go-ahead layup with 13 seconds left to increase a three-decade streak for No. 5 Kansas.
Agbaji completed with 23 factors, the final coming after the inbound cross from Marcus Garrett, in a 58-57 win over No. 14 Texas Tech on Thursday night time, giving the Jayhawks a victory of their convention opener for the thirtieth season in a row.
“We ran a play to get Ochai open and he was really open initially, however the defender was leaping over the ball the place I couldn’t get it to him (for a lob). … I used to be in a position to go searching, and Ochai was nonetheless open,” Garrett mentioned.
“Unbelievable play,” coach Invoice Self mentioned. “If we had been going to win the sport it was becoming that Ochai made the play to win the sport as a result of that was in all probability as environment friendly a sport possibly that anyone has performed for us in a very long time towards a crew that actually guarded, and their emphasis was to protect him.”
Agbaji was 8 of 11 from the sphere, together with 4 made 3-pointers, with just one turnover in 34 minutes.
“I feel what occurs with Kansas, there’s lot of screening occurring beneath the basket,” Texas Tech coach Chris Beard mentioned. “You’ve acquired to discover a method to swap underneath and drive folks to hit bounce pictures to beat you, not layups.”
Texas Tech (6-2, 0-1) had yet another alternative after a timeout with 6.2 seconds left. However Terrence Shannon Jr., who had 20 factors and 9 rebounds, had his mid-range jumper blocked by Jalen Wilson to finish the sport.
Garrett had 10 factors, 10 rebounds and 4 assists for Kansas, which has by no means misplaced a Massive 12 opener, and final misplaced a convention opener in the course of the 1990-91 season within the outdated Massive Eight Convention. The Jayhawks have received 18 of these 30 openers on the street.
“We’ve acquired quite a lot of numbers like that … 18 in a row on the street, that’s one thing that I don’t know if anyone in America can say they’ve a stat like that,” Self mentioned.
Shannon completed with 4 3-pointers, doubling his earlier season whole, together with one with 34 seconds left that put Tech up 57-56.
Mac McClung led Texas Tech with a season-high 21 factors, the third 20-point sport for the switch from Georgetown. However he completed 5-of-16 capturing and had solely two free throws within the remaining 18 minutes.
“This was Mac’s first Massive 12 sport. It was apparent,” Beard mentioned. “Garrett’s their finest defender on the perimeter, they had been switching up who Garrett was on. There was quite a lot of issues occurring on the market in tonight’s sport.”
CONTRIBUTING OTHER WAYS
Christian Braun was 0-for-5 capturing and had solely two factors for Kansas, however grabbed 10 rebounds and had an enormous play for the Jayhawks to maintain the ball and arrange that remaining inbound play. After David McCormack’s miss with 14 seconds left, Braun went after the offensive rebound, and was capable of knock the ball off McClung out of bounds.
“Him holding that ball alive was one of many best possible performs,” Self mentioned. “That’s what winners do.”
BIG PICTURE
Kansas: The Jayhawks final season grew to become the primary Massive 12 crew to go 9-0 in convention street video games, and their present 10-game streak is the second-longest in league historical past. Kansas has received seven in a row since opening the season with a 102-90 loss towards No. 1 Gonzaga. They had been held to a season-low in factors whereas capturing 40.4% from the sphere towards the Massive 12′s prime scoring protection — Tech had allowed solely 51.2 factors a sport.
Texas Tech: The Purple Raiders had solely seven turnovers and compelled 16 Kansas turnovers, and had 16 second-chance factors off 13 offensive rebounds. These form of numbers would often assist result in a win, however the Purple Raiders had been undone by their very own capturing struggles — 32% (20 of 62) and incapacity to make performs late.
“Typically you simply inform your crew within the locker room, ‘Hey, let’s put ourselves in place the following sport. Nice combat tonight.’ I don’t really feel that approach about tonight’s sport,” Beard mentioned. “I feel quite a lot of it was self-inflicted. Nothing disrespectful to Kansas clearly, however I believed we had probabilities to win the sport tonight and we didn’t win the sport.”
UP NEXT
Kansas is at dwelling to play No. 8 West Virginia on Tuesday night time.
Texas Tech performs at Oklahoma on Tuesday night time.
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