A three-pointer by Aggie Acie Law with 50.8 to go cut KU’s lead to 77-71 — perhaps forcing KU players to think back to last week’s last-minute loss to Missouri.

Instead Russell Robinson and Mario Chalmers combined for six free throws down the stretch to secure KU’s 11-0 all-time record against A&M.

For the game Kansas hit 33-of-44 free throws with Robinson and Chalmers combining to hit all but one of their 21 charities despite a rowdy Reed Arena crowd of 12,110 fans, who waved white towels and wore white T-shirts in hopes of a win over the only Big 12 opponent that Texas A&M has not beaten since the league’s inception in 1996-97.

“We told our guys going in you’re going to shoot free throws,” said KU coach Bill Self, whose squad improved to 12-6 overall and 3-2 in the Big 12. “The majority of the guys stepped up to the line and knocked them down.

“It’s a great win for a lot of reasons,” continued Self, who specified that a road win in such a hostile crowd can only add confidence to a still-maturing team. “It was a good atmosphere. It could have been a great atmosphere if A&M had gotten the lead in the second half.

“Fortunatley they were not able to make that happen. We do have a young team. We should be 3-0 on the road. We showed enough poise at key times to put us in position to win.”

Robinson scored a career-high 24 points, Brandon Rush added 22 points, and Chalmers tallied 15 points. Add in 12 points from Jackson, 11 of which came in the first half when KU trailed, and the foursome accounted for all but 10 of KU’s 83-point total.

“He’s playing well,” Self said of Robinson, who had scored just on a three-pointer in the first half. “We really didn’t play bad once we settled in. We played bad the first eight minutes.

“I thought Darnell was huge first half. I thought Darnell kept us in the game early.”

Kansas, which trailed 33-31 at the half, opened the second stanza with a 16-0 run that really opened up the game.

“Got a good whipping tonight,” a disappointed A&M coach Billy Gillispie said afterwards. “They played harder than us. They played much, much, much smarter than us. Give them all the credit. We took a lot of steps backwards tonight.

“They did what they had to do,” continued Gillispie, who worked with Self as an assistant at Tulsa from 1997-2000 and then accompanied him to Illinois. “We gave up a lot of layups, either in transition or because of mental lapse. We don’t have enough margin for error to do that. They executed, played with discipline, they played hard, they got to the basket, they did what they were coached to do. They have good players, and I can see why they are getting better in a hurry.”

Despite A&M’s early second-half mistakes the Aggies, led by three double-digit scorers in Acie Law (17 points), Josh Carter (15), and Joseph Jones (15), hit 10-of-26 threes to keep it close at the end.

“When you scout A&M you focus on Jones and Law for sure,” Self said. “They are hard to guard. They have one inside and one outside. A&M has two guys to go to and balance behind them. They kicked our butts early on the boards. I knew the way Billy coaches and we had to play tough.”

Self said his team will have to play just as tough as it did against A&M when the Jayhawks travel to Ames, Iowa for a 11 a.m. contest.

“We know they’re talented,” Self said of the Cyclones, who crushed Missouri 82-58 Wednesday night. “We’ll catch them when they have a little confidence and playing their best.”

Second Half Action

Kansas’ Brandon Rush found Sasha Kaun for a wide-open dunk to tie the contest at 33-all on KU’s first possession of the second half.

Rush hit a fade-away a minute later to give KU its largest lead at 35-33. The Jayahwk freshman followed with a break-away dunk and Russell Robinson added a drive for a 39-33 advantage with 16:25 to go.

Mario Chalmers added a pair of charities to increase KU’s 10-0 spurt as A&M has not scored in the half.

Robinson hit a tough off-glass drive and was fouled. Robinson hit the free throw to increase KU’s lead to 44-33. The sophomore followed with a three from the left side.

A&M’s Josh Carter hit a three from the right side to give the Aggies their first points of the second half and break KU’s 16-0 lead. The Jayhawks still lead 47-36.

Dominique Kirk hit another triple for the Aggies to reduce their lead to 47-39. Kirk was fouled on another long ball and will go to the line for three free throws. Kirk hit two charities.

Chalmers made up for those points with a quick steal and lay-in.

Russell Robinson, who now has 13 points, hit a pair of free throws to put KU up 51-43. The Jayhawks have hit 11-of-13 from the free-throw stripe tonight.

With 10:42 Kaun hit two free throws to put Kansas up 54-45.

A&M is shooting 40-percent, but has hit seven threes.

The two teams each have 23 rebounds.

With 10 minutes to go Jones hit two free throws to cut KU’s lead to 54-50.

Robinson responded with a shot inside the circle that bounced in.

Chalmers broke free with a quick dribble and knocked down another jumper to push KU’s lead back to 58-50.

The KU freshman guard added two free throws as KU has hit 14-of-17 charities.

Chalmers added two more free throws. Four Jayhawks are in double figures with Robinson lead the way with 15, Rush has 14, Chalmers 13 and Jackson has 11.

Carter hit his third three of the night for the Aggies to cut the score to 62-55.

Robinson added two free throws.

With 6:06 to go, Robinson hit two more free throws to put KU up 66-55.

Rush added an exclamation dunk on a fast break feed from Chalmers.

Kaun hit one free throw to put KU up 69-55.

Jones cut KU’s lead to 12.

Rush turned the ball over and the Aggies have the ball with 4:21 to go.

Rush missed a lay-in, and Giles missed a dunk.

Law hit two free throws to cut the score to 69-59.

Rush threw down a big dunk with a little more than two and a half minutes to go to put KU up 71-60.

A&M’s Jones hit two free throws with 2:00 left to cut KU’s lead to 72-64.

Rush hit one free throw, got his rebound on the second miss, before putting the ball back in and getting fouled. Rush, who has 22 points, hit the charity to put KU up 76-64 with under a minute and a half to go.

Jackson missed two free throws, and Carter hit his fourth three-pointer to cut KU’s lead to 76-68 with 57.6 to go.

Jackson missed his third straight free throw, but hit one charity for the 77-68 lead.

Law added a long three for the Aggies to cut the score to 77-71 with 50.8 to go.

Chalmers, who hasn’t missed a free throws all night, hit a pair with 49.4 to go to put KU up 78-71.

Carter airballed a long three out of bounds with 43.8 to go and KU has the ball.

KU’s Robinson, who has 22 points, sunk a pair of free throws to put Kansas ahead 81-71 with 43.8.

Robinson continues to add to his career high with two more free throws as KU leads 83-71.

The Aggies scored a late lay-in, but Kansas wins 83-73.

Halftime

Kansas has never lost to Texas A&M, but the Jayhawks trail 33-31 after 20 minutes Wednesday night in College Station, Texas.

Darnell Jackson led the Jayhawks with 11 points, while Brandon Rush tallied 10 points for Kansas, which shot 50-percent from the field.

A&M, which shot 48-percent, was led by Acie Law’s seven points. The Aggies outrebounded KU 17-12.

First Half Action

Texas A&M, whose fans all wore white T-shirts to support the Aggies won the tip and scored on their first poession when Acie Law drilled a three-poitner from the right side.

Sasha Kaun missed a short shot on KU’s first possession, but the Jayhawk sophomore came right back to cut KU’s deficit to one with a basket in the lane.

Bradnon Rush gave Kansas its first lead with a runner in the lane.

Law, however, answered with a drive of his own.

Marlon Pompey gave A&M a 7-4 lead with an up-an-under move in the post.

KU’s Darnell Jackson added a free throw, but Aggie Joseph Jones responded with a lay-in and foul to take a 10-5 lead with 15 and a half mintues to go.

C.J. Giles threw down a dunk off a lob pass from Jeff Hawkins to cut KU’s deficit to three.

Both squads are shooting 50-percent from the field in the early going.

Law added a jumper for A&M, but Jackson answered with two free throws.

Hawkins missed a break-away lay-up, but Jackson followed with a thunderous putback.

A&M hit a three, but Robinson followed with his own triple from the right side to cut KU’s deficit to 15-14.

Aggie Antanas Kavaliauskas scored on a Giles goaltend.

Kansas turned the ball over on its next three possessions to give KU six turnovers for the game.

Chris Walker drilled a three to give Texas A&M its biggest lead at 20-14 with under 10 minutes to go.

Jackson added another dunk to make the score 21-16.

Rush scored on another floater in the lane to make it a three-point game.

Josh Carter hit a free throw to put the Aggies up 22-18 with 6:27 to go.

Chalmers hit a three moments later to cut the contest to one and Rush followed with a triple of his own to tie the game at 24 with just under six minutes to play.

Both teams have hit 3-of-6 from downtown.

But the Aggies’ White responded with another long ball.

Jackson hit a jumper in the lane to make the score 27-26. The sophomore big man followed with two charities to give KU the lead again at 28-27 with 4:56 to go in the half.

Carter scored on a tough drive in the lane to put the Aggies back in front.

The Aggies went up by three when Kavaliauskas scored in the lane.

Rush, who has nine points, cut KU’s deficit to one, 31-30, with another runner in the lane with just under two mintues to go in the half.

Kavaliauskas scored another basket in the lane to put the Aggies up three with less than a minute to go in the half.

With 31.2 left in the half, Rush hit a free throws to cut the score to 33-31 — which was the margin both teams went into the lockerroom.

Kansas University freshman Julian Wright started for the first time this season, joining regulars Sasha Kaun, Brandon Rush, Mario Chalmers and Russell Robinson.

Pregame

Kansas University’s basketball team has never lost to Texas A&M, winning all 10 meetings — including all nine games since the Big 12’s inception in 1996-97.

But don’t tell that fact to KU coach Bill Self, who said he knows his squad will be in a fight at 7 p.m. tonight at Reed Arena in College Station, Texas.

“One thing about Billy’s teams, they will always be tough,” Self said, of good friend and A&M caoch Billy Gillispie.

“People who haven’t seen tough teams, hopefully they will see two on Wednesday. I guarantee they’ll see one in the Aggies. They will be tough. They are always tough. I hope we are as well.”

Kansas is 10-2 in its last 12 outings and brings an 11-6 overall, 2-2 Big 12 record into tonight’s contest against the Aggies. The Jayhawks’ 96-54 win against Nebraska Saturday was its widest margin of victory in a Big 12 game since a 98-47 win versus Baylor in 1998.

KU leads the nation in field goal percentage defense at 35.5 and is outscoring opponents by 26.9 points in victories. The Jayhawks also lead the Big 12 in assists at 18.41 per game.

Guard Brandon Rush has led the Big 12 freshmen class in scoring all season and is currently at 13.3 (16th overall in the league). Sophomore Sasha Kaun is next in scoring at 9.4 ppg and his six rebounds per game ranks 13th in the Big 12.

Freshman Mario Chalmers leads KU in assists at 3.65 per game (eighth in the conference) and steals with a 2.47 average – second in the league. Averaging 8.6 points per game (14.5 in league play), Chalmers is second on the team and ninth in the league in assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.48 per game. Sophomore Russell Robinson is second in the conference with a 2.15 assist-to-turnover ratio to go along with his 7.6 scoring average.

Texas A&M (12-4, 2-3 Big 12) is 11-1 in Reed Arena this season with the lone loss to Oklahoma, 45-44. The Aggies average 72.6 points per game and are giving up 59.3. A&M, which opened the season 10-0 and has gone 2-4 since, broke a three-game skid with a 86-81 overtime win at Iowa State on Saturday.

Junior guard Acie Law leads the team with a 17-point scoring average — sixth in the Big 12. Law has led the team in scoring in his last five games and eight times in 2005-06. Sophomore center/forward Joseph Jones is averaging 15.5 points per game and leads the team in rebounds at 7.1 rpg.

“I love this team. I’m so proud of what they are doing,” Gillispie said. “I think it’s great that everybody can be so disappointed after we went to Oklahoma State and lost and had a chance to win and lost to Oklahoma, a preseason top five or 10 team.

“I think that’s a sign of growth and sign of where our program is headed. I think we are looking at playing a different game than what’s been played here in awhile as far as approach and dealing with things. We’re headed in the right direction.”

Self said he is not surprised Gillispie, a Texas native, has put together a winner in the Lone Star State.

“Billy has done a great job of generating a lot of interest and enthusiasm at A&M,” Self said. “It’s going to be a different Reed Arena than KU has seen. I’m sure it’ll be full, a lot of Aggies pumped up. He has a very tough team, evidenced last year when they came to Allen Fieldhouse and the game came down to the last possession (in 65-60 KU victory). He’s put together a good, well-coached team.”