Cowboys stun Jayhawks 84-79

It was another bad day at home for the good guys as Oklahoma State rolled into Lawrence and dominated Kansas, pretty much from start to finish, in an 84-79 victory.

Devonte Graham canned a three to open the scoring, but it never really went KU’s way all morning. The Cowboys opened up a 14-10 lead before the under-12 timeout, a lead which quickly ballooned to 26-14, then 30-19, and before you knew it, Oklahoma State led 46-28 after a Lindy Waters three with 3:23 to go until halftime. OSU would take a 46-33 lead into the break.

Kansas made an early run at the Cowboys in the second half, closing to within 52-45 with 16:18 to play on a Malik Newman three, but OSU quickly went back up by double digits. Down 78-70 with under 2 minutes to go, Kansas made another run at it, this time closing to 82-79 after a pair of Devonte Graham free throws with 14 seconds left. But OSU’s Kendall Smith iced it at the other end with a pair of his own, and OSU came away with the upset.

Oklahoma State rebounded 11 of its first 15 misses while building it’s 18-point first half lead, just killing the Jayhawks on the glass. OSU finished with rebounding 53.3% of its misses for the game. At one point, the Cowboys had more second-chance points (18) than KU had total points (16).

The other killer for the Jayhawks was behind the three point arc. OSU hit 12-27 (44.4%) for the game, while KU hit just 8-22 (36.4%), with Svi being the main culprit, hitting just 2-9 from deep. Oklahoma State successfully alternated between man and zone throughout the game, keeping KU’s offense out of rhythm. Conversely, the Jayhawks consistently left OSU shooters open, and unlike K-State back on Monday, the Cowboys made the Jayhawks pay by hitting over 50% from the field (32-62, 51.6%).

Udoka Azubuike led the Jayhawks with 20 points, going 8-11 from the floor and 4-7 from the stripe.

This is the first time in the Bill Self era that the Jayhawks have lost three home games (1998-99).

Up next, you must try to convince fellow KU fan that Bill Self should not be fired, the sun will rise again tomorrow, and that #14 is far from a sure thing.

Kansas will host TCU on Tuesday, Feb 6, at 8 PM Jayhawk time on ESPN2.