Kansas’ remarkable winning streak in Big 12 men’s basketball road games has finally come to an end.
Freshman sensation Cade Cunningham scored 18 points (with seven rebounds), while Bryce Williams and Avery Anderson had 17 and 14 points respectively as unranked Oklahoma State, which raced to an early 16-point lead and led by 16 with 9:15 to play, nudged the No. 6-rated Jayhawks, 75-70, Tuesday night at Gallagher-Iba Arena in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
David McCormack scored 24 points and Ochai Agbaji added 14 for the Jayhawks (10-3, 4-2 Big 12), who had won their last 11 conference road games. The Jayhawks also won a Big 12 record 11 in a row on the road from Feb. 25, 2001 to Jan. 6, 2003.
KU’s last conference road loss had been an 81-68 setback at Oklahoma on March 5, 2019.
The Jayhawks used a 21-2 run to turn a 16-point deficit into a 70-67 lead at 1:20. However Isaac Likekely hit a three at 1:00 to tie the score for Oklahoma State (9-3, 3-3).
After Marcus Garrett had a shot blocked by Cade Cunningham, OSU scored off a bucket and free throw by Rondel Walker.
Garrett then missed a three with 22 seconds left and KU down three. Bryce Williams missed a free throw and KU’s Agbaji was fouled with 12.3 seconds left. Agbaji missed a pair of threes, the ball going out of bounds and staying with KU with 3.7 seconds left.
OSU intercepted a Marcus Garrett inbounds pass intended for Christian Braun past the three-point line and KU did not get a final shot in the last four seconds.
Cunningham scored 14 points, while Bryce Williams and Anderson had 10 points apiece in leading OSU to a 46-35 halftime lead. OSU hit 7 of 12 threes in the half to KU’s 2 of 9.
The Jayhawks were led by McCormack, who had 12 points and six boards in the initial 20 minutes. KU suffered nine turnovers in the half.
Cunningham scored 12 points and Williams seven as OSU grabbed an eight point lead, 32-24, with 8:07 left in the half. At that point OSU had hit six threes to KU’s two.
OSU had 24 fastbreak points to KU’s four the first 20 minutes.
The longest active conference road streak belongs to New Mexico State, which has won its last 15 road games in the WAC. KU holds seven of the top league road win streaks since the Big 12 began in 1996-97, with five of those streaks in the Bill Self era. KU has also had four eight-game road win streaks and one seven-game win streak in league play.
The Cowboys snapped a five-game losing streak against the Jayhawks and two-game losing streak to KU in Gallagher-Iba Arena, where Self is 6-8 in his 18 years as KU coach. Overall he’s 21-11 versus his alma mater.
KU will next meet Iowa State at 1 p.m. Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse.
