For the first time in seven years and the second time in Bill Self’s 22 years as head coach, Kansas has lost three games at Allen Fieldhouse in a single season.
On a day when they celebrated the building’s 70th anniversary, the unranked Jayhawks got outgunned by No. 10 Texas Tech, as the Red Raiders exploited KU’s post double-teams and suspect ball-screen defense to hit 10 3-pointers in the first half.
Hampered by foul trouble for both of its centers, Tech cooled off for a time and surrendered a 14-point lead in the second half. However, after Hunter Dickinson tied the game with a pair of free throws with 1:47 to go, Tech’s Darrion Williams put the Red Raiders ahead with their 15th 3-pointer of the night, and Dickinson came up empty on two attempts inside at the other end.
Tech won at Allen Fieldhouse for just the second time in its history, 78-73, on Saturday afternoon.
The Jayhawks squandered possibly the best game in the four-year KU tenure of KJ Adams, who racked up 21 points and 13 rebounds.
“Just really unfortunate that we weren’t able to close it out for him,” Dickinson said.
Dickinson added 18 and nine, while Rylan Griffen scored 11 on just 4-for-12 shooting. He hit three of KU’s four total 3-pointers on the night.
“We were trying to keep up with them by shooting 2s and them shooting 3s, which is hard to do,” Self said. “Fifteen to four, you got to make a lot of 2s and a lot of free throws to offset that, and we didn’t do enough of that.”
Forward JT Toppin dominated KU early but scored just three points in six minutes in the second half, finishing with 21. Guard Christian Anderson made five 3-pointers in 10 tries.
The Jayhawks had been intent on limiting Williams after he went 12-for-12 and scored 30 last year at United Supermarkets Arena, but he took advantage when KU sent two guards at him in the post by finding open players on the perimeter, and still finished with 14 points anyway.
“If I had to go back and do it all over again, I probably wouldn’t have trapped him,” Self said. “But we’re supposed to force him left and (have) the trap come from behind and we never did it right.”
KU’s offense had come out hot to start, and Tech settled for a string of three poor attempted 3-pointers in a row. After Adams threw home a putback for his second dunk of the game, Tech called timeout trailing 11-5.
The tide turned against the Jayhawks with early fouls committed by Dickinson and Dajuan Harris Jr., as well as Tech stripping a rebound from Dickinson to set up a 3 by Toppin. That kicked off an 11-0 run aided by a pair of turnovers by Zeke Mayo, who committed five on the night.
The Red Raiders made six 3-pointers in the first eight minutes of play on 13 attempts — compared to just two shots within the arc — in order to establish a 24-17 advantage.
“We were on fire to start, got anything we wanted,” Self said, “and then we leave a couple of guys and a couple of hesitations or whatnot … and then you’re playing catch-up the rest of the game.”
KU took advantage of a scoring drought of more than three minutes by Tech, getting within one point on a pair of occasions, but two turnovers by Dickinson on disjointed possessions prevented the Jayhawks from surging ahead.
Toppin made it to 18 points on 8-for-12 shooting with just under two and a half minutes to go in the first half, proving virtually unguardable by anyone on KU’s roster. Even on one possession when Flory Bidunga forced a bad miss, Toppin grabbed his own rebound and put it back. With KU struggling to cut into a five-point deficit, Toppin — who entered the day with 10 made 3s on the season — hit his second 3 of the game to reestablish Tech’s largest lead of the game at eight, then Anderson connected on two more in rapid succession to help the Red Raiders enter the half up 48-37.
At the break, they had gone 10-for-24 from beyond the arc, with the 10 field goals split between six players. KU, meanwhile, was 2-for-7 as a team with Griffen having made both.
Tech briefly took a 14-point lead on another 3, this time by Kerwin Walton, before the Jayhawks answered with an 11-0 run to draw as close as 51-48 on a tough bucket by Adams, then 53-51 after the senior forward converted a three-point play.
“KJ was fabulous,” Self said. “He tacked downhill, he played above the rim, he rebounded the ball like a man. He did a lot of things really well today.”
“I think they just gave me a lot of open looks,” Adams said. “When you have great players like Hunter and Zeke and Juan and Rylan, it opens up a lot of things for me.”
Dickinson drew Federiko Federiko’s fourth foul and tied the game with a pair of free throws. That brought Toppin back to the floor, where he immediately helped Tech resume its scoring, only to commit his fourth with 11:57 to go. Bidunga missed the front end of a one-on-one as Federiko came back into action.
The Jayhawks went ahead for a moment on a 3-pointer by David Coit, claiming their first lead since the score was 11-8, but the Red Raiders, who had been 1-for-12 from deep in the half, leapt back in front on two more 3s from Elijah Hawkins. They went ahead 70-63 after KU allowed easy transition layups to Hawkins and Federiko.
Adams threw down a give-and-go alley-oop from Harris to cut the deficit to 73-71 before Tech coach Grant McCasland brought Toppin back in with 2:43 to go, only for him to foul out less than a minute later, sending Dickinson to the free-throw line, where he tied the game once more.
KU got the ball back trailing 76-73 with 34 seconds remaining, but Harris threw the ball out of bounds on a miscommunication that torpedoed the Jayhawks’ set play. They forced a turnover in return by Hawkins, but Mayo airballed a 3 with nine seconds remaining. Chance McMillian iced the game with free throws.
“We won a lot of games on the last one or two or three (possessions) over time, and things have a tendency to balance out over time, and we’re not making enough plays,” Self said. “But particularly, we’re not getting key defensive stops when you got to get a stop.”
The Jayhawks, who fell to 19-10 overall and 10-8 in league play, will travel to face No. 4 Houston at 8 p.m. on Monday. The Cougars previously beat KU in double overtime at Allen Fieldhouse on Jan. 25.
