Kansas moved to 2-0 in the Big 12 Saturday afternoon after defeating the Oklahoma Sooners 72-61 inside the Lloyd Noble Center. Junior Travis Releford’s career high 28 points on 9-13 shooting led all scorers in the game. Junior Thomas Robinson chipped in 18 points on 8-15 shooting and led the Jayhawks in rebounds with 9.
Kansas ended the first half down 1 to the Sooners before starting the second half on a 21-4 run that seemed to destroy any hope the Sooners had of an upset. The Jayhawks were very impressive on the defensive end of the court in the second half after a disappointing first half on the defensively. The Jayhawks stepped up their energy level and forced the Sooners into multiple turnovers and rushed shots that led to easy transition buckets for the Jayhawks during their second half run.
Oklahoma finished the game with 17 turnovers to only 10 assists. Kansas finished with 17 assists and 13 turnovers, but had 16 assists to only 8 turnovers before the game got sloppy over the last few minutes.
The Sooners looked as if they would pull off the upset if not for Kansas’ ability to force the Sooners into turnovers and rushed shots during their big second half run. The Sooner outrebounded the Jayhawks 31-29, including 14 offensive rebounds. Kansas shot 21.1% (4-19) from three. OU had twice as many free throw attempts during the game. The Sooners went 20-28 from the line. The Jayhawks were 10-14 from the line, led by Releford who was 7-8. Only three Jayhawk players had a free throw attempt during the contest. Robinson went 2-5 and Tyshawn Taylor went 1-1 from the line.
Kansas will look to continue winning on the road Wednesday night at Texas Tech.
