Houston clinches Big 12 title, then routs KU by 30
HOUSTON — Jamal Shead had 13 points, six rebounds and eight assists, Damian Dunn added 12 points and No. 1 Houston dominated No. 14 Kansas 76-46 on Saturday.
The win came soon after the Cougars, in their first season in the Big 12, secured the outright conference regular-season title following No. 6 Iowa State’s loss to Kansas State.
L.J. Cryer scored 11 points and J’Wan Roberts had 10 points and eight rebounds for the Cougars (28-3, 15-3), who shot 46% from the field and hit 6 3-pointers on the way to a 40-21 lead at the half.
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“Showing them what we’ve been doing all year,” Shead said. “They didn’t get our best shot at Kansas, we got theirs. I guess we gave them our best shot today.”
Houston shot 44% for the game and hit 11 of 29 shots from long distance, while forcing 18 turnovers and converting them into 30 points.
“It’s gratifying,” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said of winning the Big 12. “I’m happy for everybody. There’s so many people that have an inferior complex about … we’re the University of Houston. This is a damn good school. We live in a damn good city, and we’re a damn good basketball program. We should never ever, ever, ever take a backseat to anybody.”
The Cougars closed out their regular season by winning their ninth straight contest and extending their home winning streak to 22 games.
“It’s almost like people thought the only teams we played were American [Athletic Conference],” Sampson said of Houston’s former conference. “You don’t get to the Final Four or Elite Eight or Sweet 16 without beating other really, really good teams. The only difference was playing them every night, but they had to play us, too.”
Kansas (22-9, 10-8) has lost three of its past four games. The Jayhawks shot 33% and were 3 for 21 from 3-point distance.
Houston controlled the first half, charging to a 34-9 lead. Kansas missed 10 straight field goal attempts at one point.
The game was a stark contrast to the teams’ first meeting on Feb. 3 in Lawrence when Kansas jumped out to a 23-11 lead and shot 69% en route to a 78-65 win.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.