Kansas beats Texas Tech in thriller on late hoop by Agbaji and final defensive stop
Ochai Agbaji’s inside shot with 12.8 seconds left erased a one-point deficit and proved to be the game-winner in No. 5-ranked Kansas’ 58-57 victory over No. 14 Texas Tech on Thursday night at United Supermarkets Arena in Lubbock, Texas.
The bucket, which came off an accurate inbounds pass from Marcus Garrett, put a smile on the face of coach Bill Self. It was not because Self, KU’s 18th-year coach, called the play, more out of admiration for the player who dropped the ball through the goal.
“If we were going to win the game, it was fitting Ochai made the play to win the game because that’s probably as efficient a game anybody has played for us in a long time against a team that really guards and their emphasis was to guard him.” Self said after the Jayhawks’ 30th consecutive victory in a conference-opener.
“I’m really happy for ‘Och,’” Self added.
Agbaji — he informed the media that short shot was the first game-winner of his entire life — provided almost all of KU’s offense.
The 6-foot-5 junior guard out of Oak Park High School scored 23 points on 8-of-11 shooting, He hit 4 of 7 threes and 3 of 4 free throws with five rebounds in 34 minutes.
Only Garrett, the point guard who found Agbaji on that inbounds toss, joined Agbaji in double figures. Garrett had 10 points, 10 rebounds and four assists in 34 minutes.
Garrett showed good chemistry in finding Agbaji on the bucket that, along with a great defensive play by Jalen Wilson on Tech’s final possession, upped KU’s record to 7-1 and dropped Tech to 6-2.
“It was great. I saw ‘Och’ actually open on the lob,” said Garrett, who would have liked to lob it in for a slam dunk game-winner. “Shannon (Terrence, 20 points) was jumping high. I couldn’t see him (Agbaji). Once he stopped jumping, ‘Och’ was still open. I was able to get him the pass. He was able to finish,” Garrett added.
Agbaji noted: “It was a last-second play call. It was kind of a scramble. Marcus did a good job finding me under the basket.”
Self’s version of the pass and bucket: “’Och’ couldn’t have been more wide open for an uncontested dunk. They did a great job on Marcus on the ball with high hands. Marcus said he was nervous to throw it. He didn’t think he could get it over him (Shannon). We miss him (Agbaji) on the easy pass; Marcus finds him on a hard pass and Ochai is able to squeeze it in. It was an unbelievable play.”
KU took the ball out of bounds only because of a hustle play by Christian Braun, who finished with two points and 10 rebounds. Braun fought for the carom of a David McCormack miss and popped the ball off Mac McClung’s head out of bounds. If Tech had grasped the rebound, the Red Raiders would have had a one-point lead, not been trailing by a point on their final possession.
“Him keeping the ball alive was one of the very best plays tonight. That’s what winners do,” Self said of Braun. “Christian was not effective at all offensively (0-for-5 shooting; 0-2 from three). Still he gets 10 boards.”
Self noted that that type of play by Braun, as well Agbaji racing back to block a shot after committing a key turnover, “make seasons. I’m not saying this makes our season by any stretch, but it gives us a chance to win a game or two where the odds were not in our favor.”
KU, which trailed by seven points with 9 minutes, 55 seconds left, went to a zone defense with about eight minutes to play despite practicing the 2-3 defense just “seven minutes” at practice this week.
However, the final defensive play came as a result of effective man-to-man coverage by Wilson, who managed just seven points on 2-of-4 shooting. Wilson blocked a 12-foot jumper in the lane by Shannon with 3 seconds left. Had it fallen, Tech would have won the game.
“At the end we went small. Jalen did a really good on Shannon, forcing him right and making him take a hard shot,” Self said. “I saw it once and saw it live, It looked to me like it was pretty good defense,” Self stated.
Agbaji noted how difficult it is to block a shot in the lane with the game on the line.
“At game point we needed a stop. That’s the hardest thing to do, come up and make a big block. Usually you just want to come up and disrupt their shot and not foul. He made a great play on the ball,” Agbaji said of Wilson.
KU won despite hitting 40.4% of its shots. KU went 6 of 18 on three-pointers. The Jayhawks sizzled at the line, however, hitting 14 of 15 free-throw tries. Tech, which was led by McClung’s 21 points, hit 32.4% of its shots. The Red Raiders hit 6 of 23 threes and 11 of 18 free throws.
KU is set to next meet West Virginia at 8 p.m., Tuesday in Allen Fieldhouse.
“It’s huge for our team,” Agbaji said of Thursday’s win. “Getting the Big 12 started off this season with everything going on, how many less games (than usual) we played in the preseason leading up to this. It was a good test for us early on against a great team. We came through it great.”
This story was originally published December 17, 2020 at 8:37 PM.
