KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ In a highly unexpected development, No. 3 seed Kansas and No. 10 West Virginia will meet Friday night in a Big 12 tournament semifinal that will be billed as a rematch of last year's tourney final.
Devon Dotson scored 17 points, Dedric Lawson 16, David McCormack 13 and Quentin Grimes 12 on Thursday night as the Jayhawks followed the Mountaineers' shocking 79-74 victory over No. 2 seed Texas Tech with a 65-57 victory over No. 6 seed Texas in a Big 12 quarterfinal contest at the Sprint Center.
The Jayhawks (24-8) and Mountaineers (14-19), who split this year's season series, will meet in Friday's semifinal at approximately 8:30 p.m. No. 1 seed Kansas State will meet No. 5 Iowa State in the other semifinal to start at 6 p.m.
Kansas downed West Virginia in last year's tourney title game, 81-70.
McCormack, KU's freshman power forward out of Oak Hill Academy in Virginia, outscored Texas freshman center Jaxson Hayes, 9-0, the first half _ one in which the two teams played to a 29-29 tie. Hayes picked up two fouls and played just four minutes in the half.
The game remained tied at 33 with 18:20 left, Kansas finally gaining some separation courtesy of an 11-2 run that built a 44-35 lead at 14:58. Lawson hit two free throws, Ochai Agbaji a layup off a Grimes steal, McCormack a stickback bucket, Dotson a 3-pointer and McCormack another inside hoop.
The lead remained nine points, 49-40, during a TV time out at 12:44. A Grimes 3 upped KU's lead to 11 points (54-43) with 9:55 to play.
The Longhorns did cut the gap to five points, 56-51, at 5:12. Grimes followed with two free throws to up the lead back to seven (58-51) at 4:45. After a Texas free throw, Dotson countered with a layup, and it was 60-52 Kansas at 3:25.
A Kerwin Roach bucket and 3-pointer sliced KU's lead to four points, 61-57, at 2:30. Texas center Hayes had to be helped off the court after getting injured with 1:58 left and KU up by the four points.
The teams did not score again, Grimes getting fouled with 27.2 seconds left. He hit the first free throw and converted again as KU led 63-57.
Dylan Osetkowski led Texas with 18 points. The Longhorns hit 8 of 25 3s to KU's 3 of 11 and 35.7 percent overall to KU's 41.8 percent.
McCormack hit 4 of 5 shots and had four rebounds in 15 minutes the first half. He did misfire on two free throw tries that could have broken the 29-29 tie with two seconds left before halftime. McCormack also had one blocked shot in the half, while KU junior Mitch Lightfoot had three rejections of Texas shots. KU freshman Dotson scored eight points with three assists against no turnovers in the half. Forward Lawson had nine points and a rebound with three turnovers.
The Jayhawks, who had six turnovers to Texas' four, hit 1 of 5 3s the initial half (42.9 percent from the field) to Texas' 3 of 7 3-point shooting and 40 percent shooting overall.
Osetkowski scored eight points with two boards, while Jase Febres, Courtney Ramey and Jericho Sims had six points apiece.
McCormack and Lawson scored nine points and KU led 11-4 at 15:41. Three Texas players responded in a 7-0 run that tied the game at 11 at the first TV timeout.
McCormack slammed a putback of a Grimes miss and Kansas led 13-11 at 12:31. On the next possession, KU's defense forced a shot-clock violation. Texas committed two shot-clock violations in the half on offense, barely avoiding a third.
Kansas led 25-22 with 3:11 left in the half. However, Osetkowski scored four points and Febres three in a 7-0 surge that put the Longhorns on top 29-25 with 1:41 left. KU immediately tied it at 29 as Dotson hit two free throws and Marcus Garrett scored off a steal. McCormack had a solid block on defense in the 4-0 run.
It was 29-29 at half as Osetkowski grabbed the rebound of McCormack's second free throw miss and fired a full court shot attempt that clanged off the backboard.
