LAWRENCE – A career-high 31 points from senior Udoka Azubuike in his final game at Allen Fieldhouse propelled the No. 1 Kansas Jayhawks to a 75-66 win over the TCU Horned Frogs and the 2020 Big 12 regular-season championship.
Azubuike notched his 11th double-double of the season and was joined in double-figures by sophomore Devon Dotson, who added 18 points, as KU clinched at least a share of the program’s 62nd conference championship.
The win, which marked KU’s 15th-straight, improved the Jayhawks to 27-3 on the year and 16-1 in the Big 12. TCU dropped to 16-14 in its 2019-20 season and to 7-10 in league play.
MOMENT OF THE GAME
While Azubuike’s performance was the highlight of the night, it was a Jayhawk junior who turned the game’s momentum in favor of KU in the early minutes of the second half. With the Jayhawks trailing by a point, 47-46, to a hot-shooting TCU team just under six minutes after the intermission, Marcus Garrett collected one of his three steals on the night and sprinted to the other end for two points. The play gave his team a lead it would not relinquish and was part of a 15-1 run that saw KU build its lead to double-digits and give the Jayhawks enough space to put away the Horned Frogs.
STAT OF THE GAME
31 – Udoka Azubuike’s senior night was one for the record books, as his 31 points marked the most by a KU senior on his Senior Night in over 30 years. Danny Manning also tallied 31 in his final outing at Allen Fieldhouse in a win over the Oklahoma State Cowboys on March 5, 1988. Azubuike also became the first Jayhawk to post a game with 30 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks in the Big 12 era (since 1996-97).
UP NEXT
The Jayhawks will close out the 2019-20 regular season when they journey to Lubbock, Texas to take on the Texas Tech Red Raiders on Saturday. Tipoff from United Supermarkets Arena is slated for 1 p.m. (CT) on ESPN.
KU leads the all-time series with Texas Tech 36-6, which includes a 78-75 victory in Lawrence in this season’s first meeting. The Jayhawks are 14-5 against the Red Raiders in Lubbock.
--kuathletics.com--