Jayhawks Spay Wildcats in OT, 90-84

The game started out neck-and-neck for the first 18 minutes and the Jayhawks and Wildcats battled each other before Kentucky went on a mini-run right before halftime to take a 46-40 lead into the break.

Kansas stormed right back after play resumed, but Kentucky responded and built a 57-49 lead with 13:57 to go.  Once again the Jayhawks would respond, tying the game up at 64-all with 5:59 to play.  Kansas found themselves down a point with 34 seconds left.  After Selden had a shot blocked, Skal Labissiere fouled Perry Ellis with 9 seconds remaining.  Perry made one of two free throws to force overtime.

Overtime was basically a free throw contest - Kansas scored 12 of its 14 overtime points on free throws while stifling Kentucky's offense.

Final score: Kansas 90, Kentucky 84

Stats

Wayne Selden was a man possessed tonight, leading all scorers with 33 points (a career high) on 12/20 shooting.

Mason (13), Graham (11), and Ellis (10) were the other Jayhawks scoring in double figures.

Graham led the Jayhawks in assists with 5 against only 1 turnover.  (Mason was 4 ast vs 3 TO.)

Rebounding went KU's way 42-31.  Ellis led the Jayhawks with nine boards.

As a team, Kansas hit 8/17 (47.1%) from behind the arc.  Selden was 3/5.

The Jayhawks hit 6/9 on 3-pointers in the second half.

Kentucky was 5/23 (21.7%) from behind the arc.

Kansas went 30/47 (63.8%) from the free throw line, including 12/16 in overtime.

That means KU was only 18/31 (58.1%) from the stripe in regulation.  That's awful.

Kentucky was 13/22 (59.1%) from the line.

There was no court-storming.

Four Wildcats fouled out (Poythress ,Wilis, Labissiere, Lee).

Wayne Selden played 44 of the possible 45 minutes.

Takeaways

So yeah, that was Kansas playing a zone defense in the second half, right?

I seem to remember that tricky triangle-and-two working in the past...

I agree with Jay Bilas, Selden played smart AND aggressive.

While Perry and Graham were on the bench in foul trouble in the first half, I thought Greene, Diallo, and Bragg all played well.

Although, Diallo and Bragg both took several shots just inside the three point arc.

Selden dunked on Skal, that was pretty cool.

The free throw shooting has me a little worried.  Seems like we've been slipping on that.

This game could have been won pretty easily in regulation just by hitting a few more free throws.

They're called "free" for a reason, guys...

Landen Lucas dunked!  It was in overtime, after a foul, so of course it was during a dead ball and didn't count.

Perry Ellis only played six minutes in the first half after picking up two quick fouls.  But the refs were totally bought and paid for tonight.

Up Next

The Jayhawks will return to Allen Fieldhouse for the Sunflower Beatdown (hopefully) on Wednesday, February 3.  The game is scheduled for a 8 PM tip (Jayhawk time) and will be televised on ESPNU.