Basketball is a game of runs. Go on enough and keep the other team from doing the same and good things can happen, like a run to a conference title.<\/p>\n
Arizona used runs of 19-0 in the first half and 16-0 in the second half to beat No. 14 Kansas 84-61 on Saturday afternoon at McKale Center at ALKEME Arena. The win clinches at least a share of the Big 12 title for the second-ranked Wildcats (27-2, 14-2), a championship they can clinch outright Monday night at home against No. 4 Iowa State.<\/p>\n
The UA outscored Kansas 35-14 over the final 12 minutes after the Jayhawks (21-8, 11-5) got within two, giving Tommy Lloyd his 139th win to tie him with Brad Stevens for most in the first five seasons as a Division I head coach.<\/p>\n
Brayden Burries had 20 points, a career-high 12 rebounds and five assists, while Koa Peat scored 12 with seven rebounds and five assists in 23 minutes in his return from a 3-game absence due to a muscle strain in his lower leg. Motiejus Krivas added 13 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks as Arizona had five players in double figures.<\/p>\n
Kansas freshman Darryn Peterson, the projected No. 1 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft who missed the previous meeting won by the Jayhawks on Feb. 9, led all scorers with 24 points. He was 8 of 21 from the field while the rest of the Jayhawks were 14 of 43.<\/p>\n
Arizona dominated on the boards, finishing with a plus-22 advantage, and was 30 of 34 from the line compared to 10 of 11 for Kansas.<\/p>\n
The Wildcats led 39-28 at the break after being up as much as 18 late in the first half. It started 0 for 5 from the field, after missing the last five of the first half, and a Peterson 3 got Kansas within seven.<\/p>\n
An Anthony Dell\u2019Orso 3 got the lead back to 10, but Kansas kept chipping away. Peterson\u2019s third 3 made it a 6-point game and then Flory Bidunga scored inside for his only basket to make it 49-45 with 13:03 to go. Bidunga had scored 23 in the first meeting.<\/p>\n
After a UA timeout and an empty possession, Melvin Council Jr. scored on a runner to make it a 2-point game before Ivan Kharchenkov hit a corner 3. That sparked a 16-0 run which included a possession where Arizona got three offensive rebounds before Burries was fouled and made both free throws.<\/p>\n
It also saw Kansas turn it over twice and commit three fouls, including a flagrant on Jamari McDowell to keep Kharchenkov from scoring after a steal.<\/p>\n
Peterson hit a long 2 to end a second long scoring drought only to see Burries drain a corner 3 to put the Wildcats up 68-49 with 7:13 remaining.<\/p>\n
Peterson hit a 3 on the game\u2019s opening possession, and Kansas had a 5-2 lead before Arizona found its groove and scored 19 in a row. The first eight forced Bill Self to call timeout after watching Peat score four points, including his first basket since Feb. 9 in Lawrence, and dish twice toKrivas for dunks.<\/p>\n
Two more baskets and Self called a second timeout, with the run lasting 4:37 with the Jayhawks missing nine consecutive shots before Peterson got a steal, basket and foul for a 3-point play.<\/p>\n
Kansas\u2019 Bryson Tiller, who had 18 points in the first meeting, picked up two fouls before the UA\u2019s run and got his third with 7:39 left in the first half on a moving screen.<\/p>\n
The Jayhawks had a chance to cut the deficit to single digits but a steal and score by Ivan sparked another 6-0 run for a 37-19 lead with 3:50 left before halftime, forcing a third Self timeout. That was the UA\u2019s last field goal of the half, though.<\/p>\n
Arizona wraps up its home schedule Monday against Iowa State, which lost at home to Texas Tech on Saturday and was eliminated from the Big 12 title race.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Basketball is a game of runs. Go on enough and keep the other team from doing the same…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631744,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[9763,7,217,231,772,1544],"class_list":{"0":"post-631743","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-arizona-basketball","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-college-basketball","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-basketball","13":"tag-ncaab"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116152393005607036","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}