No. 6 Kansas overcame an 11-point first-half deficit on the road to knock off No. 25 Oklahoma 67-57 on Saturday. The Jayhawks improved to 6-4 against Quad 1 opponents and moved into a third-place tie with Baylor in the Big 12 standings.
The Jayhawks (20-6, 8-5 Big 12) earned their seventh victory against a Top 25 team this season, which is the most in the country. Kansas star guard Kevin McCullar Jr. returned to the lineup after a two-game absence and scored 10 points while dealing with foul trouble for the majority of the second half.
Kansas star point guard Dajuan Harris Jr. scored 11 points and dished out seven assists, while big man Hunter Dickinson recorded his 15th double-double with 20 points and 16 rebounds. The Jayhawks improved to 7-1 this season when Harris records at least 10 points.
Oklahoma (18-8, 6-7) played shorthanded without forward John Hugley lV and guard Rivaldo Soares in the lineup due to injury. The Sooners led for nearly 25 minutes of game action until Kansas went on a run midway through the second half and never looked back.
Jalon Moore scored a team-high 17 points for the Sooners in their fifth loss in the last eight games. Oklahoma dropped one spot to eighth place in the Big 12 standings with the loss.
Kansas gets over road woes
The drought is over. After losing its last four Big 12 road games, and five of its last six away from Allen Fieldhouse, Kansas won a road conference game.
Kansas is simply a different team when playing on the road in conference play this season and the home and away splits prove it.
Kansas allowed nearly 10 more points on the road (66.0 to 75.8) and let opponents shoot 40% from beyond the arc in the first six games in Big 12 play. This game could prove to be a turning point, as Kansas held Oklahoma to its lowest point total of the season (57). Oklahoma also only connected on eight 3-pointers on 23 total attempts (34.8%).
Kansas has road games against Baylor and Houston to close out conference play. Both games are critical to show this wasn't just a one-off performance. Regardless, this was a step in the right direction.
The one that got away from Oklahoma
Oklahoma came into this game shorthanded but looked poised to pull off an upset win. The Sooners led a majority of the first half after taking an 8-5 lead with 15:19 left until halftime. They held Kansas without a field goal for nearly six minutes midway through the second half and needed a small run to pull away.
They didn't and as a result, Kansas didn't trail in the final nine minutes of regulation after taking a 49-46 lead.
In CBS Sports' latest Bracketology by Jerry Palm, Oklahoma was on the No. 6 line. With this loss, the Sooners dropped to 3-7 against Quad 1 opponents and it's very possible the Sooners could see their seed line drop because of the chaos happening around them. TCU needed a last-second 3-pointer by Jameer Nelson Jr. to beat Kansas State, Iowa State improved to 9-3 in Big 12 play with a win over Texas Tech and BYU found themselves on the wrong side of the scoreboard against Oklahoma State.
Oklahoma missed Hugley and Soares in this one. Still, this is a game that got away from them. Oklahoma had an opportunity to add another quality win to its resume when other teams in the conference lost and it couldn't make it happen.
