Cincinnati Defeats Kansas In Second Round of Big 12 Tournament
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Cincinnati upended an under-manned Kansas team, 72-52, in the second round of the Big 12 Men’s Basketball Tournament at T-Mobile Center on Wednesday.
Cincinnati (20-13) became the first team in this Big 12 Tournament to win two games, as the No. 11 seed beat No. 14 West Virginia in the first round. The Bearcats will shoot for three straight when they face No. 3-seed Baylor at 8 p.m. in Thursday’s last quarterfinal.
Kansas (22-10) saw itself eliminated from the Big 12 Tournament in its first game for the first time since 2017 when it was upset in the quarterfinals by TCU, 85-82, when the league was still 10 teams.
Everyone knew Kansas would be undermanned going into the Big 12 Tournament, as coach Bill Self ruled out both center Hunter Dickinson and forward Kevin McCullar Jr. earlier in the week. Dickinson hurt his shoulder against Houston on Saturday and McCullar continues to deal with a bone bruise in his knee.
Both could be ready to play for the NCAA Tournament. Self said Dickinson could be ready for conditioning work later this week.
But that didn’t help the Jayhawks on Wednesday. So for most of the game Self went with a lineup of Dajuan Harris Jr., Johnny Furphy, Elarmko Jackson, KJ Adams Jr. and Nicolas Timberlake. Parker Braun — who wasn’t 100% either, per Self — and Jamari McDowell were the primary bench players.
Adams — who turned out to be Kansas’ best scorer on the night — left the game with 9:42 left after falling hard and into the basket frame while trying to defend a lay-up. He returned a minute later.
After struggling in the first half, Kansas showed life in the second half. The Jayhawks outscored the Bearcats 7-0 to start the second half and eventually cut the lead to two points, thanks in part to Adams, who finished with a team-leading 22 points.
But, while Cincinnati only scored five points in the first nine minutes of the second half, Kansas didn’t do enough to take the lead and a Dan Skillings Jr. jumper gave the Bearcats a 43-38 lead with 10:57 left. Cincinnati had an eight-point lead when Adams left the game.
Adams returned, but Simas Lukosius drained a 3-pointer with 8:01 to push Cincinnati’s lead back to double digits. From there, the Bearcats maintained the lead to move on to the quarterfinals.
Cincinnati — which lost its only meeting with Kansas, 74-69, against a full-strength Jayhawks team on Jan. 22 at Allen Fieldhosue — started the game sharp.
The Bearcats even got some carryover from its incredible shooting performance from the 3-point line its first-round win over West Virginia, when both Lukosius and Day Day Thomas each hit seven 3-pointers.
Slowly, Cincinnati built a lead on its prowess from deep, as it led 30-18 with less than five minutes to play in the first half. By then Cincinnati was 50% from the arc — 5-for-10 — and Kansas had not made a 3-pointer. A Skillings jumper pushed the lead to 32-18 and wrapped up a 13-2 run with 4:40 left.
Cincinnati led by 13 points, 38-25, at the half. By then, Cincinnati had five 3-pointers — two of which were from Thomas — and Kansas had none.
Cincinnati also owned the glass on both ends, outrebounding the Jayhawks, 49-38 and robbing Kansas of several second-chance opportunities.
Skillings led Cincinnati with 25 points, while John Newman II added 12 points, Jizzle James 11 points and Lukosius 10 points.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
