🏀 Jayhawks Take Down Tarleton, Move to 2-0

LAWRENCE, Kan. – Four Kansas players scored in double figures as the Jayhawks moved to 2-0 with an 88-62 victory over Tarleton State on Friday night, November 12, at Allen Fieldhouse.

Ochai Agbaji continued the strong start to his senior season, finishing with 25 points and six rebounds. He has now scored over 20 points in both games this season and nine times in his career. Agbaji was joined in double figures by junior Christian Braun with 15 points, super-senior Remy Martin with 14 and super-senior Jalen Coleman-Lands with 10. The Jayhawks shot 58.6% (34-of-58) from the field and hit 45.0% (9-of-20) from three-point range.

"I thought the game kinda went as what we thought. I didn’t think we played bad in the first half when we were only up eight, made some bad plays down the stretch in the first half and our defense wasn’t great by any stretch but it was good enough. We shot the ball well and only turned it over six times in the second half against a team that pressures that much, that’s pretty efficient."

Bill Self

The Jayhawks shot 50% from the field in the first half, connecting on 15-of-30 field goal attempts and 3-of-10 three-pointers while building a 39-31 lead at the break. KU led by as many as 13 in the first half, which came at the 9:03 mark of the half as a basket by Agbaji capped off a 9-0 run that put the Jayhawks up 25-12.

That pace was accelerated in the second half as Kansas scored outscored Tarleton State 49-31 to extend their margin of victory. The Jayhawks hit 19-of-28 (67.9%) field goals in the second half and knocked down six three-pointers while building their largest lead thanks to three-pointers by Chris Teahan and Zach Clemence in the game’s final minute.

Defensively, the Jayhawks finished with 11 blocks, which is their most since January 12, 2019, at Baylor, when they also recorded 11. Christian Braun and David McCormack each set a new career-high with five blocks apiece.

Kansas returns to action on November 18, hosting Stony Brook at Allen Fieldhouse before heading to Orlando, Florida, for the ESPN Events Invitational from November 25-28.