Kansas was on the road against Texas Tech in a Big Monday match up in Lubbock. Both teams were looking to remain in the hunt for a Big 12 basketball regular season championship. Tech was off a loss at UCF on Saturday, while Kansas had a win over BYU. It was a classic back-and-forth Big 12 game. And in the end, Kansas was able to pull off the gutsy road win 64-61 to improve to 7-2 in the Big 12, while Tech fell to 6-3.
Here are the Top 3 things we learned from Monday’s game.
Darryn Peterson CAN Play a Full Game!
A full game for Darryn Peterson proved to be too much for Texas Tech, especially without Christian Anderson, who missed the game with an illness. Kansas came back in the second half, and it was Peterson who hit the eventual game-winning three-pointer with under a minute to play.
This came thirty seconds after Peterson hit the game-tying three-pointer with 1:20 to play to tie the game at 61. Kansas trailed by as many as 10 points in the second half. KU was down 57-47 with eight minutes to play, before chipping away and pulling off the win.
Peterson played 35 minutes after missing most of the second half vs. BYU with cramps and scored 19 points on 5-14 shooting and 3-7 from three-point range. The 35 minutes were the most minutes he’s played this season.
Texas Tech’s Depth Issues on Display
Christian Anderson missed the game due to an illness, and while Tech put together a strong fight at home against a Top 15 team without him, it was noticeable down the stretch.
Texas Tech led 59-52 with six minutes to play and scored only two points the rest of the way. It was a JT Toppin jumper at the 2:26 mark. Those were the final points of the game for the Red Raiders. Anderson’s 19.6 points per game were missed, and Tech struggled down the stretch as KU’s defense locked down. Tech actually had a couple of second-chance opportunities in the final few minutes, and missed put backs and three pointers. Tyeree Bryan, who filled in a lot of the minutes for Anderson, had a couple of three-point attempts in the final minutes that he missed as well.
The Red Raiders played a hard fought game considering they were missing Anderson, and are a team that is still figuring out a rotation beyond a strong starting five, however, beating Peterson and the Jayhawks proved to be too tall of a task.
Big 12 Standings
And just like that, after a 1-2 start to Big 12 play, the Kansas Jayhawks have won six games in a row, are 7-2 in league play, and two games back of the first-place Arizona Wildcats, who are 9-0. Kansas is tied for third place with Iowa State with their 7-2 mark, with only Houston between the Jayhawks and the Wildcats.
And we’re in for a great stretch of basketball. After playing Utah at home on Saturday, Kansas’ next week includes a Big Monday home game vs. Arizona, followed by a road game at Iowa State next Saturday, February 14th. Next week will be a huge week for determining who will go on to win the Big 12 basketball regular season title.
