KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas struggled to put together offensive success Friday night, losing 69-47 to the Houston Cougars in the Big 12 Tournament semifinals.
Houston swarmed KU’s offense early, jumping out to a 13-7 lead at the under-12 media timeout.
Darryn Peterson had his fingerprints all over Kansas’ offense during that stretch, as he was responsible for all seven of KU’s points.
Houston’s lead then ballooned to 11 after a three-pointer from Chris Cenac, Jr, at the 11:13 mark, giving him eight points in a little under nine minutes of action.
Kansas cut its deficit to five after Jamari McDowell’s three-point jumper, his first of the night, with just over 7 ½ minutes left in the first half.
Just as KU was clawing back into the game, Cenac responded and continued to make an impact for the Cougars, scoring five points during a 9-2 run to put Houston up 12 with less than five minutes to go.
The Jayhawks then began to chip away at the Cougars’ lead again, stringing together scores and stops as halftime approached.
Kansas forced back-to-back turnovers, first a shot clock violation and then a steal off an inbound pass, to cut Houston’s lead to four with 1:08 to play in the first frame.
With less than a minute to go, it looked like the Jayhawks were in position to go into halftime with some much-needed momentum.
However, Houston drew shooting fouls on two straight possessions, including a foul on a three-point attempt by Kingston Flemings that made the crowd of majority KU fans at T-Mobile Center unhappy.
Kansas’ defense was strong enough to put Houston into a nearly five-minute field goal scoring drought to end the half, but the Cougars still went into halftime up 33-25.
Houston ran roughshod on Kansas to start the second half, going on an 18-2 blitz to push its lead to 24 at the 12:26 mark of the second half.
KU went on a dismal 0-14 shooting slump from the field during Houston’s run, and the Jayhawks never recovered.
Houston went on to win 69-47 Friday night, holding Kansas to under 25% shooting from the field for the entire game.
The Cougars will move on to face the Arizona Wildcats in a rematch of last year’s Big 12 Tournament title game.
The Jayhawks will shift their focus to Selection Sunday.
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