Jayhawks Survive Another Scare, Beat Texas

Once again, Kansas jumped out to a big early lead, and once again, it didn't take long to disappear. Much of the first half followed the same script as Saturday's game at Baylor, but Texas proved to be far tougher to put in the rearview mirror after KU jumped out to an 8-0 lead.

Marcus Garrett was the story early on, scoring 13 by the under-12 timeout, which included hitting his first three attempts from outside. By halftime he'd racked up 17 points on 7-7 shooting. Unfortunately, Kansas allowed Texas to grab 37% of their own misses and hit eight threes, while KU went just 2-7 from the charity stripe. Texas had a 39-38 lead at the break.

Three point shooting was the name of the game coming out of the locker room. By the under 16 timeout, KU was 4-4 from outside after hitting 6 of 12 in the first. If not for Texas' offensive rebounding, it might have been a blowout from there. Unfortunately, Texas racked up second chance points after KU found some success forcing contested shots.

KU pushed the lead to ten, but much like the Baylor game, struggled down the stretch. Turnovers and open threes gave Texas A 14-4 run in just two minutes' time, and it was a tie game with just over two minutes to go. Two Dedric Lawson free throws and an NBA range three from Vick made it 78-73. Texas answered with a mid range jumper, followed by a miss on a desperation three from Garrett with the shot clock running down. Fortunately, the Longhorns then missed back to back jumpers after another offensive rebound.

Lawson then hit one of two at the line after being fouled, but Texas came back with another three. Marcus Garrett then split two attempts, giving Texas the ball down two with 8.6 seconds left. They took a contested three from the wing, which missed long. Kansas barely escaped with an 80-78 victory.

Marcus Garrett finished with 20 and three steals, but was part of the issues at the free throw line, going 1-4. Ditto Lawson, who overcame a rough first half to finish with with 17 but went 5-8 at the line with the big miss late. Vick went 5-8 from three to finish with 21.

The Jayhawks are now 4-1 in Big 12 play and head to Morgantown for a 1:00 tipoff Saturday.