Jayhawks beat North Texas 71-59 in Jalen Wilson’s return. Ochai Agbaji scores 18 for KU

Kansas’ men’s basketball team continued its winning ways on Thursday, this time with sophomore forward Jalen Wilson as a part of the rotation.

Wilson, making his season debut after missing one exhibition game and three regular-season contests as part of a suspension for suspicion of DUI, came off the bench to score seven points as the No. 4-ranked Jayhawks downed North Texas 71-59 in a first-round ESPN Events Invitational game Thursday at HP Field House in Kissimmee, Florida.

Wilson, who hit 3 of 4 shots in his season debut and grabbed five rebounds with four assists, was not the leading scorer for KU (4-0).

That honor went to Ochai Agbaji, who scored 18 points. Christian Braun added 16. Remy Martin, who had four points in the first half, finished with 15, eight rebounds and four assists.

Martin played well despite grimacing at times because of a back injury that had him jogging on the court to stay loose before the game. At least two times on Thursday, he asked to come out of the game.

Agbaji passed the 1,000-point scoring mark in his four-year career.

KU advances to a semifinal game against Dayton at 12:30 p.m. Central time Friday on ESPN.

Tylor Perry had 23 points and Thomas Bell nine for North Texas (2-2), which went a dismal 4 of 27 from three-point range.

Wilson entered a game for the first time this season with 15:23 left in the first half, KU up 6-3. He grabbed a quick rebound and dished a perfect drop-off pass to Mitch Lightfoot for a dunk that gave KU a 14-9 lead.

Wilson hit one of two free throws at the 12:39 mark and made an acrobatic baseline slam to give KU a 20-17 lead with 11 minutes remaining until halftime. He was fouled on the play but missed the free throw.

In all, Wilson scored five points in nine minutes by halftime as KU led 35-27 at the break. Agbaji had 10 in the first half for KU, which led by as many as 13 points before intermission.

This story was originally published November 25, 2021 at 3:41 PM.

Gary Bedore

The Kansas City Star

816-234-4068

Gary Bedore covers KU basketball for The Kansas City Star. He has written about the Jayhawks since 1978 — during the Ted Owens, Larry Brown, Roy Williams and Bill Self eras. He has won the Kansas Sportswriter of the Year award and KPA writing awards.