KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ After its first-round flop a year ago, Kansas is back in the championship game of the Big 12 men's basketball tournament.
The Jayhawks, who have won the league's regular-season crown 14 years in a row, downed short-handed Kansas State, 83-67, in Friday's semifinals at the Sprint Center and advanced to Saturday's title game for the ninth time in the 15-year Bill Self era.
KU (26-7) has won the tourney title seven times under Self, the last attained in 2015-16.
Malik Newman scored 22 points with six rebounds and four assists, Devonte Graham had 15 points and eight assists and Svi Mykhailiuk added 12 points as KU won its second straight game without sophomore center Udoka Azubuike, who sprained the MCL in his left knee at practice on Tuesday. Self has said he'll be re-examined Sunday amid hopes he can play in the NCAA Tournament.
Silvio De Sousa contributed 11 rebounds and eight points, and Mitch Lightfoot had eight points and three rebounds while again putting up good combined numbers in place of Azubuike. De Sousa and Lightfoot combined for 14 points and 14 rebounds in the Jayhawks' quarterfinal win over Oklahoma State.
KU, which hit 11 of 28 3s to KSU's 2 of 13, defeated a KSU team that was without its two best players. Forward Dean Wade, who had scored 42 points and grabbed 14 rebounds in a pair of losses to KU during the regular season, was ruled out of the game earlier in the day because of a foot injury.
KSU point guard Barry Brown (21 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds in two previous games against KU) was poked in the right eye on a foul by Graham just 1 minute, 17 seconds into the game, KSU down, 3-0.
Brown returned to the bench after being treated in the locker room, but did not return to the game.
Makol Mawien scored a career-high 29 points, Xavier Sneed had 12 and Cartier Diarra and Amaad Wainright added nine apiece for the Wildcats (22-11).
The Jayhawks led by 13 points (43-30) at halftime and 16 points (46-30) at the 19:44 mark. KSU was far from finished, however, using a 7-0 run to cut the gap to 46-37 at 17:00.
KU led 50-37 at 15:36, but KSU rattled off a 14-3 run and cut the gap to just two points (53-51) at 10:17. Wainright had the first five points of the run.
KU received a huge bucket from Marcus Garrett while nursing the two-point lead. He had missed a 3, but after a KSU rebound, he plucked a steal and hit a layup to make it 55-51 KU at the 9:55 mark. Graham missed, then De Sousa tipped in the rebound for a 57-51 Jayhawks lead. After KSU cut it to four, Newman hit a 3 and De Sousa made two free throws to make it 62-53 KU.
Newman, who had 30 points in the Jayhawks' quarterfinal victory over Oklahoma State, scored 12 points on 5-of-9 shooting in the first half and KU led 43-30 at halftime. Mykhailiuk had three 3s (he was 3 of 9 from the field) and nine points in the half. KU hit 7 of 16 3s and 51.4 percent total, while KSU was 1 of 7 from 3 and 40.6 overall.
KSU actually built a 12-7 lead while Brown was being treated in the locker room. Diarra, Wainright and Levi Stockard had a bucket apiece in a 6-0 run. But KU used a 13-0 run to grab a 20-12 lead by the 10:11 mark. Newman hit two 3s and Mykhailiuk one in the surge.
KSU cut it to 22-16 at 8:31 and was down just 32-27 at 3:20. However, KU closed the half on an 11-3 run.
