Playing without its starting point guard and sixth man, Kansas’ shorthanded men’s basketball team nonetheless claimed a 93-64 victory over TCU on Tuesday night at Schollmaier Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.
Freshman Dajuan Harris, who picked up two quick fouls the first six minutes, scored seven points and dished seven assists. He started and played 27 minutes in place of lead guard Marcus Garrett, who took an inadvertent elbow to the head by Texas’ Jericho Sims in KU’s 25-point loss to the Longhorns on Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse.
Garrett — he joined key reserve Bryce Thompson (back injury) on the bench — participated in shootaround Tuesday but was unavailable as sixth-ranked KU (9-2, 3-1) still managed to avoid back-to-back losses in Big 12 Conference play.
Also for KU, junior Ochai Agbaji was not 100% after suffering a hamstring injury Monday at practice. Agbaji hit a three to open the scoring and finished with 19 points in 31 minutes.
Also, David McCormack scored 20 points with eight rebounds. Jalen Wilson flirted with a triple double in scoring 16 points with eight rebounds and six assists. Tristan Enaruna had career highs in points (12) and rebounds (seven). Christian Braun had 10 points for KU.
TCU (9-3, 2-2) was led by Chuck O’Bannon, who had 18 points.
The Jayhawks, who opened early leads of 17-8, 28-17, 42-28 and 49-33 claimed their 11th consecutive victory in a Big 12 road game. The Jayhawks tied their own record of 11 straight road wins set from Feb. 25, 2001 to Jan. 6, 2003.
KU not only had injury problems, but Harris, who had three early assists in helping KU to a nine-point lead, picked up his second foul at 14:00. He left for a spell but returned to net three points with five assists in 12 first-half minutes.
KU also faced some first-half adversity on the court, when Enaruna, who had five early points for the Jayhawks, was bumped by Tyon Grant-Foster on the defensive boards. Enaruna actually tipped in a TCU miss for two points for the Horned Frogs.
KU built a 22-point lead in the second half (64-42) when McCormack hit an 18-footer, yes an 18-footer and converted an ensuing free throw to complete a three-point play. The lead extended to 26 points (68-42) when Agbaji flushed a lob from Harris.
The Jayhawks improved to 98-13 following a loss in the 18-year Bill Self era. KU improved to 47-5 following a defeat over the past seven seasons.
The Jayhawks, who have won five straight games following a defeat, last dropped consecutive games of any kind in 2018-19 — at Kentucky and Texas on Jan. 26 and 29, 2019.
KU’s last two-game losing streak in conference play came during the 2012-13 season when Oklahoma State defeated KU in Lawrence and TCU beat the Jayhawks in Fort Worth in February of 2013. That actually turned into a three-game losing streak when Oklahoma defeated KU in Norman, giving KU its longest losing streak of any kind — league or otherwise — in the Self era.
KU will meet Oklahoma at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse.
