Kansas beats Texas, extends winning streak at Allen Fieldhouse to 50 games

It was apparent to Kansas’ basketball players during pre-game warmups that a struggling Texas team wasn’t going to go through the motions against the No. 2-ranked Jayhawks on Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse.

“It makes it more fun, definitely does,” Kansas freshman guard Josh Jackson said, referring to some pre-game banter with the Longhorns that included Texas sophomore Kerwin Roach jumping up and swatting a Svi Mykhailiuk three-point shot above the rim to conclude the shootaround right before player introductions.

“Yeah,” Mykhailiuk said after Kansas’ 79-67 victory, asked if he noticed Roach preventing his practice shot from falling in the hoop. “It’s all right. I knew I was gonna make that shot, so that’s all right,” he added.

Coincidence or not, the fired-up Jayhawks (18-1, 7-0 Big 12) were aggressive from the start, racing to early leads of 14-2 and 19-5 thanks to a defense that plucked five steals in the first 4  1/2 minutes and totaled a season-high 14 steals for the game.

“I think that’s the best we’ve started a game in the past few games we played in,” senior guard Frank Mason said after scoring 17 points with seven assists against one turnover in 34 minutes. Devonté Graham led Kansas’ four-guard lineup with 18 points to go along with his five rebounds, five assists and zero turnovers, while Josh Jackson had 15 points, five rebounds, two assists and six turnovers and Mykhailiuk had 12 points, four boards and three steals.

“We were pretty active,” Mason said. “We were in the right spot. Coach (Bill Self) tells us all the time you don’t even have to play good defense. If you are just in the right spot, sometimes the other team will just give you the ball. We were in great position on the defensive end and made some plays.”

Texas (7-12, 1-6) steadied itself after falling behind 14 points just 6 1/2 minutes into the game. The Longhorns, thanks to the inside work of freshman Jarrett Allen (career-high 22 points, career-best 19 rebounds) trailed just 24-21 and 26-23 before Graham hit two threes and Mykhailiuk one in a 9-2 spurt that helped KU regain a double-digit lead.

Texas’ Allen, however, hit a shot that beat the halftime buzzer and cut a 10-point margin to 41-33 at the break.

“We kind of broke down on the defensive end,” Mason said. “We didn’t do our job. They made some tough shots. We didn’t really communicate in transition.”

It was close throughout the second half with Kansas leading by just four points (53-49) with 14:13 left, six points (59-53) with 10:11 left, and seven points (71-64) at 3:31.

“I would say today we were so good early you are not going to keep playing that way,” Self said. “Texas … we staggered them early then the law of averages prevailed. They fought back.”

Still, Self was displeased at aspects of his team’s play.

Kansas had 16 turnovers to Texas’ 19 on a day the Jayhawks stretched their Allen Fieldhouse win streak to 50 games and overall win streak this season to 18 games.

“I thought our defense was pretty darn good the first half,” Self said. “Second half I didn’t think our defense was near as intense.”

Texas hit 42.4 percent of its shots, including 6 of 16 on three-pointers.

“The thing offensively we did so poorly is our unforced turnovers again — 18 in Ames (76-72 win on Monday), 16 today for no reason,” Self added. “We just turned it over, bad turnovers too. That fragmented the game. I don’t think you can look too good when you turn it over that much. I thought Texas played good defense, but our turnovers were bad ones I thought.”

Self also bemoaned, “so many momentum plays that good teams, to be honest, don’t do.”

Self praised Texas’ Allen, whose 19 rebounds were the most for a KU opponent since Jackson Vroman of Iowa State grabbed 19 boards on Feb. 21, 2004. Allen, a 6-11 freshman, was just three boards shy of tying Iowa State’s Chuck Duncan (22 in 1995) for most boards against KU in a conference game.

“He was the best player in the game,” Self said of Allen. “Now everybody knows why we wanted him so bad. He not only will be a great college player, but pro too.”

Kansas senior forward Landen Lucas grabbed 14 rebounds and helped the Jayhawks to a 40-33 rebound advantage on a day he played despite being sick.

“He didn’t feel good,” Self said. “I thought he showed us quite a bit being out there playing 31 minutes.”

Lucas made a pair of free throws with 4:23 left that gave KU a 70-60 lead.

“He does a lot of stuff to help us win even if it doesn’t show up in points,” Self added.

Mason said the right knee he bumped in the Iowa State game felt fine.

“I think it’s getting better. It didn’t hurt at all,” said Mason, who hit 7 of 15 shots and was 2 of 4 on three-pointers. “I didn’t take any hits. Hopefully that will continue to happen moving forward. I’ll still get treatment.”

Kansas next plays at West Virginia on Tuesday. The Jayhawks have lost three straight years in Morgantown, prompting junior guard Graham to say winning there is “on the bucket list.”

Then it’s off to Kentucky for a showdown next Saturday, followed by home games against Baylor and Iowa State, then on to Kansas State.

“It’d be nice if we kick it into another gear because if we don’t we’ll be looking two weeks from now looking at the situation saying, ‘OK, it’s anybody’s race.’ And it still is anybody’s race,” Self said.

“We put ourselves in decent position. Now we have to capitalize on our effort so far. We’ve always had teams perform well in stretches. This stretch is about as tough as we’ve had since I’ve been here.”

Notes

Former Kansas guard Sherron Collins, actor and KU fan Rob Riggle, and Royals announcer Denny Matthews attended Saturday’s game. … KU reserve forward Mitch Lightfoot had a tip-in of a Mason miss and Kansas led, 26-21, with 5:45 left in the first half. Self said it was the best tip the Jayhawks have had this season. … Kansas’ 50-game win streak in Allen Fieldhouse is the fourth-longest Allen Fieldhouse win streak in program history and the second longest in the 14-year Self era. The all-time record is 69 games set by Self’s Jayhawks in the span of Feb. 7, 2007-Jan. 22, 2011. … KU’s current overall win streak of 18 games ties the second longest win streak in the Self era. His teams now have won 18 in a row three times. The school record win streak is 23 straight games from March 6, 1935-March 26, 1936. ... Mason passed the 1,500 point mark for his KU career. He’s now 20th on the all-time list, passing Ron Kellogg, with 1,514 points. … Tipoff time for Kansas’ home game against Iowa State on Saturday, Feb. 4, has been set for 1 p.m. ESPN and Big 12 Conference officials announced Saturday.

No. 2 KANSAS 79, TEXAS 67

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Percentages: FG .424, FT .647. Three-Point Goals: 6-16, .375 (Jones 3-4, Davis 2-7, Yancy 1-1, Isom 0-1, Roach 0-3). Team Rebounds: 2. Team Turnovers: 19 (19 PTS). Blocked Shots: 7 (Allen 3, Jones 2, Banks, Cleare). Turnovers: 19 (Allen 6, Cleare 3, Jones 3, Davis 2, J.Young 2, Roach 2, Banks). Steals: 7 (Davis 3, Jones 2, Roach 2). Technical Fouls: None.

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Percentages: FG .467, FT .706. Three-Point Goals: 11-23, .478 (Graham 4-8, Mason 2-4, Mykhailiuk 2-4, Jackson 2-5, Vick 1-2). Team Rebounds: 3. Team Turnovers: 16 (15 PTS). Blocked Shots: 2 (Lucas 2). Turnovers: 16 (Jackson 6, Mykhailiuk 3, Bragg 2, Lucas 2, Vick 2, Mason). Steals: 14 (Jackson 4, Graham 3, Mykhailiuk 3, Bragg, Lucas, Mason, Vick). Technical Fouls: None.

Half: Kansas 41-33. Attendance: 16,300.

AP-WF-01-21-17 2114GMT

This story was originally published January 21, 2017 at 3:23 PM with the headline "Kansas beats Texas, extends winning streak at Allen Fieldhouse to 50 games."