Kansas Advances to Big 12 Title Game with 71-58 Win Over Iowa State

Wilson again put up a monster performance as he and the Jayhawks look for more hardware.

If anyone didn’t know Jalen Wilson was the Big 12 Player of the Year, all they had to do was watch the first five minutes of the Big 12 Tournament semifinal game between Kansas and Iowa State, which resulted in a 71-58 win that sent the Jayhawks to the Big 12 title game. Then he did it for 35 more minutes.

After Dajuan Harris scored the first points of the game, Wilson had the next 11 points for Kansas, including hitting all three from deep. Then it was Adams with an and-one and then on the receiving end of an alley-oop from Harris to put Kansas up 17-9. But Iowa State was feisty. The Cyclones cut Kansas’ lead to three when Kevin McCullar swished a three to extend it back to six at 22-16.

The back and forth remained for much of the first half. ISU was strong on the offensive boards again, but Kansas balanced it by forcing 12 first-half turnovers, including seven steals. Again, the lead shrunk to four when Adams found Wilson on a post-up with 53 seconds left, Wilson’s 15th point of the half. Then a dunk by Adams on a fast break after a turnover put KU up eight at the break.

But Iowa State was determined to make this a fight. The Cyclones opened the second half on a 7-0 run to cut the lead to one at 33-32. It was a duel between Gradey Dick and Jaren Holmes. Dick scored five straight points while Holmes – a 30% three-point shooter in conference play – hit back-to-back threes. At the same time, McCullar re-aggravated his back and had to come out of the game.

Again the lead was just one as KU started the half 1-10 from the floor. A turnover by Iowa State turned into Wilson losing the ball on the fast break and Kansas had to foul the Cyclones. Two Demarion Watson free throws gave ISU its first lead of the game with 14:21 remaining. Dick missed a three on the next possessions but Wilson grabbed the rebound and was fouled. Two free-throws later and KU led again 40-39.

A huge stop on defense and a floater by Harris added some separation. But turnovers prevented much further separation. Ernest Udeh gave huge minutes in the second half. After passing up a dunk that led to a turnover, Harris found him for a slam and then Udeh steals it from a Cyclone and gets fouled. He hit both and Kansas led 48-41.

The back-and-forth battle continued, with Wilson showing how tough he is, grabbing rebounds and drawing fouls. It wasn’t always pretty, but the Jayhawks showed a lot of fight without McCullar in the game and ISU ramping up the pressure. Two Wilson free throws made it eight and then a Dick steal led to a Yesufu contact-filled layup and all of sudden Kansas led 57-47.

A Dick three with three minutes left put Kansas up 12, 62-50, at a point when ISU kept knocking on the door. What sealed it was an area fans had been worried about: free throws. Kansas started 8-19 from the line in this tournament, but Wilson and Harris stepped up to bury free points from the stripe. Kansas finished the game 19-26 from the line.

The exclamation point was a hard drive by Wilson for his 25th point to put Kansas up 14 with 40 seconds left. Wilson added 10 rebounds and three steals to go with his 25 points. Dick chipped in 15 and five, while Harris had another stat-line-stuffer performance of 11 points, two rebounds, six assists, and four steals. Adams also had eight points and four assists, while Udeh had a big four points, steal, and a block.

Kansas will face the winner of TCU-Texas in the championship game Saturday night.