‘It’s just fun’: Kansas men’s basketball survives trip to face Oklahoma, wins

NORMAN, Okla. — The Kansas men’s basketball team headed back to Lawrence with a victory in tow after beating Oklahoma 67-64 on Tuesday.

It’s another Big 12 Conference win for a Kansas squad that had lost its last road game in conference play. Like the win at home against Iowa State, Jayhawks head coach Bill Self needed someone to hit a big shot late. And this time, that was a 3-pointer with less than 12 seconds left from junior guard Christian Braun to break a tie.

Braun finished with 15 points, just behind redshirt sophomore forward Jalen Wilson’s 16 points. Senior guard Ochai Agbaji was the only other Kansas player to finish in double figures, scoring all 10 of his points in a back-and-forth second half after missing time in the first due to what’s been described by Braun and Self as a wrist injury. The Jayhawks, ranked 7th in the latest coaches poll, improved to 15-2 overall and 4-1 in Big 12 play.

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“It’s just the grit,” said Wilson, asked why he loves games like this. “I mean, those kind of games, it’s just fun. I mean, this is what basketball’s for, those kind of close games. And especially on the road, when you’ve got the crowd and everybody’s into it and you’re just able to just take that all away. I think that’s what makes basketball great.”

This was Self’s first game against a Sooners team coached by Porter Moser after Lon Kruger’s departure. Self thought this was a lot like playing against Kruger-coached teams. Here are few more takeaways from Kansas’ win on the road against Oklahoma (12-6, 2-4 in Big 12):

Ochai Agbaji delivers late

Agbaji missed a sfignificant portion of the first half due to an injury to his left wrist. Agbaji didn’t hit his first shot until less than six minutes remained in the game.

Agbaji's first basket tied the score at 52. Then he hit two clutch 3s to help the Jayhawks to a tie at 58-58 with about three minutes left. Then he hit a layup late to put Kansas up 62-60 before earning the assist on Braun's 3-pointer to put the Jayhawks up 65-62 in the final minute.

“Well, he’s a winner and he’s been our best player all year long,” Self said about Agbaji, who finished 4-for-11 from the field and 2-for-5 from behind the arc. “And (Braun)’s been our second best. And even though (Braun) probably was better than Ochai tonight, he probably didn’t have his best game either. And so, for those guys to step up and make those plays in the last four minutes I think speaks volumes of talent but also more importantly toughness and character.”

Self said he didn’t know that Agbaji went to the locker room during the first half, but added he was told the X-rays were negative. Self described it as a “sprained wrist or whatever,” and didn’t say if Agbaji would practice Thursday.

Remy Martin returns from injury

Super-senior guard Remy Martin played in his first game for Kansas since the Jan. 8 loss at Texas Tech. After missing a pair of Big 12 games due to injury, he appeared in a little more than 15 minutes off of the bench, shot 1-for-5 from the field and had two points, two steals, two turnovers and an assist. He also had a +/- of +6.

But in the second half Martin played only about two minutes, and Self indicated that had nothing to do with the injury Martin’s been dealing with. Self said he assumed Martin’s knee held up fine. Self said Martin looked like someone who hadn’t practiced much the last two or three weeks and tried to do too much early, and in the second half he chose to just play the guys he thought were playing well.

“He’s doing good,” said Wilson, asked how Martin was doing. “He’s doing good. We’re all keeping him up. Games like this happen and mentally he’s still there. We was all cheering as loud as we could. So he’s good.”

Martin played more than any other Kansas player off the bench. Self’s distribution of minutes leaned toward his starters. Senior forward David McCormack played the least of the starters, at about 26 minutes, while the rest played more than 32.

Kansas recovers after tough stretch in second half

The Jayhawks seemed poised to run away with the game in the second half, leading by 12 points not long after halftime. They were on a 10-0 run after the break. The contributions were coming from multiple people.

But then the Sooners went on a 20-2 run. The Jayhawks were struggling mightily offensively, and not getting enough stops defensively. The prospect of a win inside the Lloyd Noble Center seemed dire. Then Agbaji took over.

Self said the Jayhawks were awful during the middle of the second half.

“We struggled,” said Braun, asked about how Kansas played defensively. “We went on runs, they went on runs. We just didn’t keep them down. ... But if you make big plays down the stretch — you kind of need games like that, honestly. You don’t want it to be that close and you don’t want to lose, but games like that going forward will be really valuable.”

Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas men’s basketball survives trip to face Oklahoma, wins 67-64