LAWRENCE, Kan. _ Kansas' basketball team, for the 29th straight season, has opened conference play with a victory.
Udoka Azubuike scored 17 points and grabbed 11 rebounds (with six blocks) and Devon Dotson added 16 points with four steals as the No. 3-ranked Jayhawks rallied from a 10-point first-half deficit to defeat No. 16 West Virginia, 60-53, on Saturday afternoon at Allen Fieldhouse.
Marcus Garrett contributed 12 points with six assists for Kansas (11-2), Ochai Agbaji seven points and Christian Braun, who started and played the entire second half, tallied six points with five boards as KU stretched its winning streak in Big 12 (and before that Big Eight) openers to 29 games. KU's last loss in a leaguer opener was 88-82 at Oklahoma on Jan. 8, 1991.
Freshman big man Oscar Tshiebwe scored 17 points with 17 rebounds for West Virginia _ he had 15 points and 10 boards the first half. West Virginia (11-2) a week ago defeated No. 2 Ohio State in Cleveland.
"We decided to go with our toughest guys. Christian is one of our toughest guys," Self said of the reason he played Braun all 20 minutes of the final half. Also, Dotson and Agbaji played all 20 minutes of the second half, while Azubuike played 17 minutes, Garrett 16. The only subs were David McCormack who went three minutes and Silvio De Sousa who went four in the half.
"Christian was a stabilizing force for us," Self added.
This one was close to the end.
KU held a 52-44 lead with 3:11 to play only to see WVU cut the gap to 52-49 with at 1 minute, 18 seconds left. Garrett responded with a bucket to up the lead to five. But WVU cut it to 54-51 at 46.3 seconds on a pair of free throws: Garrett was then fouled and hit the two free throws to make it 56-51. Dotson hit two free throws to make it 58-51 with 29 seconds left.
Tshiebwe, a 6-9 freshman from Democratic Republic of the Congo, scored 15 points and grabbed 10 boards while playing 17 minutes the first half to pace WVU to a 30-24 halftime advantage. He hit 6 of 8 shots the first half, his teammates 6 of 26. Jordan McCabe chipped in five points in a half in which KU hit 2 of 11 of its 3s and 6 of 13 free throws.
Dotson scored 12 points the initial half on 5-of-9 shooting. His teammates were 3 of 13 from the field.
"We'll get a lot better," Self said after a game in which the Jayhawks went 19 of 30 from the line and missed 14 of 17 3s; WVU was 12 of 22 from the line and 3 of 14 from 3. "We've got to get a lot better. It'll be more fun getting better with this under our belt," he added.
KU in fact had just three players score the entire half. Azubuike had six points and seven boards in the half and was 4 of 8 from the line. Garrett also had six points in the half.
KU, which trailed by six at halftime, 30-24, opened the final half, 8-2, to tie the score at 32-32 on an Agbaji 3 at 17:31. The Jayhawks grabbed a 37-36 lead at 13:29 on an Azubuike dunk and ensuing free throw.
KU, down 38-37, again took the lead, this time 40-38, when Braun hit a left-handed floater and free throw at 12:45.
KU used a timely 8-0 run to turn a 38-37 deficit into a 45-38 lead at 9:08. Braun opened with his bucket and foul shot, followed by an Agbaji free throw, two more free throws by Agbaji and a dunk by Azubuike.
KU led 47-40, but Agbaji missed a 3 and WVU converted two free throws and it was 47-42 at 6:36. It was 49-42 at 4:26.
West Virginia jumped to an 8-5 lead at 14:30. KU which had 10 turnovers in the half, wasted some early opportunities as Azubuike missed four of his first six free-throw tries.
West Virginia used a 9-2 run to up that 8-5 lead to 17-7 at 11:33. At that point, Tshiebwe had five points and three boards. KU at that point was 2 of 9 from the field, 1 of 5 from 3 with five turnovers.
KU sliced the deficit to 17-13 following five points from Garrett and two free throws from Azubuike.
However, WVU upped the lead back to 22-13 thanks to five points from frosh Tshiebwe.
It was 30-24 at half as Dotson's half-court shot missed barely at the buzzer. Overall KU hit 36.4% of its first-half shots to WVU's 35. percent.
