KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas Jayhawks will not get to play another game in Kansas City, Missouri, in March after an 88-77 loss to the Arizona Wildcats Thursday night.
A Dajuan Harris three-pointer was the first points of the night for Kansas as the game was tight early on.
Both teams traded baskets during the first four minutes, then Arizona rattled off a 10-0 run, going up 19-9 at the 13:15 mark of the first half.
Back-to-back buckets from Flory Bidunga and Hunter Dickinson cut the deficit to five.
But the Wildcats responded by pushing the lead up to 11 heading into the under 12 timeout.
Caleb Love hit a pull up jumper to put Arizona up 12 with just a little over eight minutes to go in the first half.
After Love’s basket, Kansas chipped away at Arizona’s lead, getting as close as three points at the 3:23 mark due to a Dajuan Harris jumper.
The Jayhawks wouldn’t get any closer though and the Wildcats would go into halftime up 45-37.
Arizona’s blistering hot shooting helped pad its lead as the team shot 53% from the field and 64% from behind the arc.
A lack of ball security didn’t help the Jayhawks either, committing six turnovers compared to Arizona’s four.
Trey Townsend scored a layup in Arizona’s first possession of the second half to make it a double-digit contest yet again.
With the Wildcats looking to break the game open, Dickinson began to make an impact with seven points in two minutes to cut Arizona’s lead to five.
Then it was Zeke Mayo’s turn to get in on the action, drilling four three-pointers to give Kansas a 59-56 advantage at the under 12 timeout.
After Mayo’s barrage of threes, the game went back and forth for a few minutes as the tempo and intensity picked up for both teams.
Townsend’s layup gave Arizona the lead just before the under eight timeout and the Wildcats never relinquished their lead, winning 88-77 to move on to the semifinals of the Big 12 Tournament.
Kansas, on the other hand, will be sitting tight until Selection Sunday.
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