The Jayhawks got out to a rare great start in this one, building up a 9-3 lead less than three minutes in. Unfortunately, David McCormack picked up an early second foul, and things started going poorly from there (imagine writing that sentence six weeks ago). Kansas got sloppy with the ball, committing several unforced turnovers, and Texas hit five of their first seven twos. Mitch Lightfoot continues to be incredibly poor in his relief duty behind McCormack and Texas’ big men started going to work. It very quickly turned into a 16-11 deficit.
KU did start to get some things going after taking Lightfoot out of the game and went on a really nice run, turning the deficit into a 26-18 lead before Texas finally ended their run, only to be answered by an Ochai Agbaji three (his third of the first half).