KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) Devon Dotson scored 17 points, Dedric Lawson added 16 and No. 17 Kansas pulled away in the second half for a 65-57 victory over Texas on Thursday night in the Big 12 Tournament quarterfinals.
David McCormack added 13 points and a career-best nine rebounds for the third-seeded Jayhawks (24-9), who advanced to play West Virginia in the semifinals on Friday night.
The No. 10 seed Mountaineers upset second-seeded Texas Tech earlier in the day.
Dylan Osetkowski had 18 points to lead the sixth-seeded Longhorns (16-16), who may have needed a win at the Sprint Center to help their NCAA Tournament resume. They have a strong strength of schedule but have lost five of their last six games overall.
Kansas improved to 20-3 in quarterfinals since the inaugural tournament in 1997, and took a big step toward redemption in Kansas City. The Jayhawks finished behind the Red Raiders and Kansas State in the league race, ending their record-setting run of 14 consecutive regular-season crowns.
The Jayhawks and Longhorns split in the regular season with each winning at home, so perhaps it was no surprise that they played to a 29-29 stalemate in the first half.
Kansas got out to a quick 9-2 lead but languished through long periods, unable to get anything going offensively. The Longhorns did their best work attacking the paint and getting to the foul line, even though 6-foot-11 freshman Jaxson Hayes sat most of the half with two fouls.
The Jayhawks began to edge ahead early in the second half.
Lawson scored a couple of quick baskets to build a lead, and the brutish, 6-foot-10 McCormack went to work on the glass. He made one nifty rebound off a miss by Ochai Agbaji and spun around for a lay-in, helping Kansas stretch its lead to the biggest of the game.
Texas tinkered with a 2-3 zone and a half-court trap to slow the Jayhawks, and to some extent they succeeded. But the Longhorns were unable to capitalize at the other end.
When they closed to within 56-51, the Jayhawks’ Quentin Grimes drew a foul and triggered the bonus, making both free throws. When the Longhorns added a foul shot of their own, Dotson breezed to the bucket for another contested layup to extend the Jayhawks’ lead.
The Jayhawks held on the rest of the way.