Moments That Popped: No. 11 Kansas 64, No. 13 Texas Tech 61

There's been plenty of frustration all season about KU freshman Darryn Peterson's inability to be on the floor late in games.

Now we know why.

With KU trailing for most of the second half but remaining close enough to be there late, Peterson hit a 3-pointer with just over a minute to play to tie the game at 61 and then put the Jayhawks ahead with a pull-up 3-pointer 30 seconds later.

Peterson scored just 8 points in the second half and 19 for the game, but none were bigger than those 6 on a couple of clutch shots that you expect your best player to make.

Kansas 64, Texas Tech 61.

Just as important was the final score and Peterson's heroics was the fact that he looked good throughout and played 35 minutes to help KU closed the game on an 8-0 run over the final 2:12.

All of this just 48 hours after the KU fan base was, yet again, freaking out over Peterson sitting for all but 3 minutes of the 2nd half in a home win over BYU.

I get it. You want to know what’s going on and, more to the point, you want to see this guy play more. But maybe he knows what’s he’s doing.

Make it six straight wins for the surging Jayhawks.

These are the types of games that Bill Self's teams just haven't been winning in recent years. But KU found a way late and did a great job in the first half of keeping the game under control and not letting the wild Texas Tech crowd fuel a big run by the Red Raiders.

KU's defense and ability to remain poised and search for good shots, especially in the paint, helped control the flow and KU led for nearly half of the first 20 minutes while taking a 32-29 lead into the locker room.

The Jayhawks gave up the lead and control of the game in the first few minutes of the second half, when Tech got hot from 3-point range and thwarted KU's opportunity to extend its lead to 6, 7 or more by hitting Kansas with an 11-0 run that put the Red Raiders up by 6 — 42-36 — five minutes into the second half.

A few minutes later, the Tech lead was up to double digits and KU played uphill the rest of the night until they found a way to get over the hump in the final minute.

Next up, KU (17-5 overall, 7-2 Big 12) will return home for a pair of games at Allen Fieldhouse and another Saturday-Monday turnaround. First up, the Jayhawks will play host to Utah at 1:30 p.m. Saturday. After that, it's No. 1 Arizona that comes to town for a Big Monday battle on Feb. 9.

Here's a look back at some of this Big Monday action from the Jayhawks and Red Raiders.

LIKES

• Old habits die hard - For all of the Jayhawks' inconsistencies this season, with their lineup, intensity, shooting and more, Bill Self's club has become pretty consistent in one area in recent weeks — throwing the ball into the paint on their first offensive possession. It happened again on Monday night, when Flory Bidunga scored the game's first points right at the rim off of an entry pass from Bryson Tiller. And, if you've been following along, the desire to throw it into KU's bigs from the perimeter has long been a staple of Self's offensive philosophy. Whether early, throughout or at game point, Self has always believed that the best way to play is by letting your bigs get a touch down low and branching out from there.

• Speaking of around the rim – The Jayhawks were physically tough at the rim all night, making life miserable for Tech star JT Toppin and the rest of the Red Raiders whenever they got close to the rim. Some of that's a mindset. Some of it's pride. And some of it is just the old-fashioned idea of winning the war and doing whatever it takes to make it happen. Because of that, it made Tech pretty one-dimensional and made it a struggle for the Red Raiders to play thorugh Toppin like they prefer to do. Toppin finished the game with just 10 points on 5-of-18 shooting and he was thoroughly outplayed by KU big man Flory Bidunga, who was tough at the rim all night long and finished with 14 points and 9 boards on 7-of-8 shooting in 36 minutes.

• Tiller stays aggressive... with the pass - Self praised Tiller after his career night against BYU for playing aggressive at all times. That mindset, which has grown and grown within Tiller during recent weeks, carried over to Monday night. Tiller was on the passing end of two of the biggest highlights of the night. Both were lobs to Bidunga. One from the lane, which Flory finished with a fierce flush and another from the free throw line late that helped keep KU within reach. Tiller had just 3 points on 1-of-6 shooting but added 10 rebounds and 4 assists to help contribute to the victory.

• Rosario sighting! - KU freshman Kohl Rosario had not played since Jan. 16 and had played just 14 minutes total in KU's last seven games. Self said last week that he was not down on Rosario and still believed he was going to become a good player. And then, with 8:01 to play in Monday's first half, Self backed that up by putting him into the game. Rosario's presence paid off immediately, when he skied for an offensive rebound that led to a Darryn Peterson 3-pointer and three second-chance points for the Jayhawks. It's that effort and athleticism that will always make him an option. No one on this KU team plays harder and no one hits the offensive glass with more bounceability. Rosario played 6 minutes in that first half, with only the rebound and assist to show for it. Still, it was notable to see him out there and likely came from Self's displeasure with the effort given by reserve guards Jamari McDowell and Elmarko Jackson in the game's first 20 minutes.

• One-shot-and-out for Texas Tech - The Red Raiders opened the game shooting 5-of-15 from the floor and they got just one of those 10 misses back in the game's first 8-10 minutes. That success rate for the KU defense extended to just 3 offensive boards for TTU on 23 first-half misses. And one of them came when the Red Raiders scrambled to recover a vicious block by Bidunga well away from the rim. Defensive rebounding has been a real issue for this KU team, especially throughout Big 12 play. But they've emphasized doing better in that area and it was clear, early on, that the extra emphasis paid off. Not only does that help you on the court, in the game and on the scoreboard, but defensive rebounding is rhythm, too. And cleaning up the glass for consecutive possessions like that against a good team can elevate total team confidence.

DISLIKES

• Jayhawks looked tired - This was the first Saturday-Monday turn of the season, with travel factored in and a short bench, and it showed in a big way throughout this one. Still, Kansas, which has been gritty all season long, found a way to overcome the fatigue and short bench to steal the victory. Four of KU's five starters played 34 minutes or more (Tre White played 28) and the Jayhawks gave just 31 minutes to their bench in this one, which forced all five starters to dig deep to get this one. Self and the Jayhawks used a challenge with 2:32 to play on an out-of-bounds call. But the guess here is that the challenge was used as much to buy another timeout as if the challenge had been successful. It wasn't. And the Red Raiders scored immediately on the inbounds play to push their lead from 3 to 5 with just over 2 minutes to play.

• DP forcing just a tad - The first half of this game by Peterson looked an awful lot like that of a guy who had been out a while and was bound and determined to get all the way back up to speed in just a few minutes of his first game back. That wasn't exactly the case, of course. DP has played in all but one of KU's Big 12 games. But he did sit for most of the second half of KU's weekend win over BYU and perhaps that was in his head a little. He forced up shots, rushed looks and didn't quite look to be in flow. That said, he still had 11 points at the break to lead all scorers, but on just 3-of-10 shooting and a 1-for-4 clip from 3-point range. Peterson didn't get the calls he was looking for on a few of those forced shots and that might've been his plan in this one, to try to take the fight right to Tech, forcing the action and drawing fouls for easy points on the free throw line. It worked to some extent, when he did get the whistles, but they didn't come quite as much as he would've liked in the first half.

• Rosario remains ice cold - While it was great to see Rosario get some run in the first half of this game — and look pretty comfortable while doing it — the playing time did nothing to cure the cold shooting that has plagued him all season. Rosario missed both 3-point looks he got in the first half. One came a little early in the shot clock and the other was in rhythm and later in the possession. Both missed off the back iron and Rosario's season percentage dipped to 24.5% (13-for-53) without him seeing another shot the rest of the night. Rosario played 2 minutes in the second half, but didn't have the same impact that he did in the first half.

WHAT THE?

• Non-existent benches - It wasn't just Kansas that played with a short bench on Monday night. Texas Tech did, too. The two teams played just seven combined players off the bench — 31 minutes for KU's four subs and 20 for Tech's three — and got just 5 points combined from the reserves. In fact, neither team's bench even scored until a pair of free throws by KU guard Elmarko Jackson with 12:02 to play. It worked for one of them on Monday night. Simply because it had to. But it sure seems like this approach, in this conference, is going to be awfully hard to sustain. That said, the Jayhawks now will get four days of down time before their next game.

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