Texas Tech men’s basketball super senior Bryson Williams had himself a game Monday night, going for a season-high 33 points, one short of his career-high of 34.
But Kansas senior Ochai Agbaji was even better, leading his No. 5 Kansas Jayhawks with a career-high 37 points to escape with victory over the No. 13 Red Raiders 94-91 Monday at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kansas.
Texas Tech is now 15-5 on the season, 5-3 in the Big 12, and 1-4 on the road, with the only road win coming against then-No. 1 Baylor on Jan. 11.
Tech was awfully close to getting their first-ever season sweep of the Jayhawks, and it turned from a game that looked out of reach to a game Tech should’ve had to a game that finally was a win for Kansas.
It was an overtime classic that might be a bit too familiar to fans of the Jayhawks as well as the Red Raiders.
Williams’ performance managed to top the performance he put forward in the Jan. 8 win over the Jayhawks, and Tech head coach Mark Adams said in the postgame press conference that ever since the first Kansas game, Williams has been playing well.
“Everytime I mention Kansas, I think he gets ready to play,” Adams said, “but he’s been playing well since that first Kansas game, and so I think we’re going to continue to see him scoring all three levels and make big plays. He’s been a lot of fun to coach.”
Williams is now averaging 17.9 points in Big 12 play this season, good for third in the conference behind Kansas State’s Nijel Pack (19) and Kansas’s Agbaji (22.6).
First Half: Tech Defense Holds Strong, But Offense Sputters
Texas Tech forced three early turnovers on Kansas and turned it into five points, but Kansas played pretty clean after that.
Agbaji got going early with 13 first-half points, nine of them on three-pointers as he was the one Jayhawk the Red Raiders could not find an answer for.
Texas Tech’s offense sputtered even more, as no player had more than a single basket or four points except for Williams, who went for 12 points in the half and did it in multiple ways.
Kevin McCullar and Terrence Shannon, Jr., Tech’s second- and third-leading scorers who were not available for the Jan. 8 win against Kansas, combined for just two points in the first half.
Second Half
Agbaji continued to be deadly from both deep and even inside, including an electric alley-oop on a pass from Christian Braun.
Of course, so did Williams, who was a mismatch all night.
But it was seniors Davion Warren and Kevin Obanor, the latter being named Big 12 Newcomer of the Week earlier on Monday, who helped pull Texas Tech to within two points late with a combined 14-4 run all on their own.
Shannon was not able to make both free throws when given the opportunity to tie with under a minute left, only making one to cut the Kansas lead to 74-73.
Luckily for Tech, Agbaji, who was co-Big 12 Player of the Week, only made one of his free throws on the other end. McCullar missed a layup at that point with 21 seconds left, but Agbaji touched the baseline as he grabbed the rebound, and Texas Tech was somehow given another life.
Shannon drove to the basket and drew a foul, and although the ball went in, it was not a shooting foul. He made both free throws to finally tie the game in the second half at 75-75 with 12.8 seconds left.
Agbaji could not make the triple at the end of the game, and a game that looked like it was in Kansas’s control was suddenly going into overtime.
Overtime
Williams decided he hadn’t scored for too long, so he made an and-one play and a hook shot to give Texas Tech an 80-77 lead in overtime.
Obanor decided he also wanted to make a shot from deep after missing 11 in a row, sinking one to give the Red Raiders a five-point lead, 83-78.
After Braun answered for Kansas, Warren went up for a short jumper, and it was called goaltending on Kansas’s David McCormack, even after a review where it was awfully close either way.
Williams was then called for goaltending on Agbaji, and the call was slightly more clear. After Warren missed a layup, Warren then fouled out to give Agbaji two more free throws, but for all his heroics, the free throw line was his weakness.
Agbaji went 3-for-6 from the free throw line, and missed one of the two in that situation to keep it tight.
But he turned it around and drained a triple when they absolutely needed it, and with seven seconds left, Kansas somehow forced a second overtime.
Second Overtime
It looked like Texas Tech might slip, even after an early bucket from Mylik Wilson, as they gave Kansas a few too many chances on a particular possession.
Thing is, it ended in Agbaji free throws, and as usual, only one of them went in, but Kansas still had an 89-88 lead.
Williams decided he would call bank, though, and he made another shot from deep to give Texas Tech a 91-89 lead.
Ultimately, Texas Tech did slip, as then it was Kansas freshman K.J. Adams with two offensive rebounds to finally get the tip-in, and it was a tie-game at 91-91 with 1:38 left.
An Obanor missed triple led to Kansas’ Jalen Wilson making one free throw for another one-point lead, and no field goal was made after that for either team, but the offensive rebound by Braun with 11 seconds left was all the Jayhawks needed as they escaped with a victory.
Not a single Texas Tech shot in the second overtime was taken inside the paint, and only one of their six shots was inside the 3-point line.
Adams said in the second overtime, it came down to plays they didn’t execute, settling for shots instead of driving into the paint, and too many fouls.
“They did drive and you know, they were able to get to the paint and we fouled them,” Adams said. “So too many fouls that second overtime, and we weren’t able to get to the paint and do the same thing to them.”
Up Next
Williams said in the press conference the team fought hard Monday night, but it just wasn’t enough
“We came to fight,” Williams said. “We knew coming into Phog Allen [Fieldhouse] [that] this is a hard place to play. You play against a legend coach, you play against one of the most talented teams in the country, you got to come and bring it, and we came to do that tonight, I mean, we just fell short.”
Shannon settled for too many jumpers, including at the end of the first overtime, and it seemed like he never got into a groove, only getting five points Monday night on 1-for-10 shooting.
McCullar also struggled with just two points on 1/11 shooting, although he did have four assists.
No. 13 Texas Tech will look to rebound from and build on this loss on Saturday in their Big 12/SEC Challenge game in Lubbock at 5 p.m. against Mississippi State.
Key Stats
Bryson Williams (TTU): 33 PTS, 14/19 FG, 4/4 3FG, 5 REB, 1 STL
Kevin Obanor (TTU): 17 PTS, 6/8 FG, 1/3 3FG, 4/6 FT, 8 REB (3O/5D), 3 BLK
Davion Warren (TTU): 15 PTS, 5/9 FG, 4/6 FT, 5 AST, 2 STL
Ochai Agbaji (KU): 37 PTS, 13/23 FG, 7/12 3FG, 7 REB
Christian Braun (KU): 15 PTS, 4/13 FG, 6/7 FT, 7 REB (4O/3D), 6 AST
David McCormack (KU): 13 PTS, 3/5 FG, 7/8 FT, 5 REB
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