With the Alamo Bowl Champion football team being honored at halftime, the Longhorns were in perfect position to pull off the upset victory against the fourth ranked Jayhawks at the Frank Erwin Center on Saturday until eventually letting a double-digit lead evaporate. Texas led Kansas by as many as 11 points in the second half and maintained a lead with 2:46 to go but not before the Jayhawks charged back, hit free throws and snuck out of Austin with a 15 game win streak.
Freshman guard Ben McLemore scored 16 points and senior big man Jeff Withey scored 14 points and grabbed 9 rebounds for the Jayhawks. Kansas shot only 39% from the floor but visited the charity stripe often, scoring 21 points from the line alone. The Jayhawks have reeled off an impressive win streak since losing to #21 Michigan State back on November 13th and sit at 4-0 in conference play.
For the Longhorns, Sheldon McClellan played off the bench and once again led the team in scoring, pouring in a game-leading 18 points. Julien Lewis scored 11 points and Jonathan Holmes scored 10 in the loss. In contrast to Kansas, Texas did not have very many opportunities from the free throw line. The Longhorns only managed to capitlize on 2 of the 8 shots attempted from the stripe. They shot 44.6% from the floor and committed 14 turnovers, one less than Kansas.
The Longhorns dropped to 8-9 on the season and 0-4 in Big 12 play, the first time Rick Barnes has ever started conference play 0-4 in his tenure in Austin.
Next Game: Texas plays Oklahoma on Monday, January 21st in Norman. The game will be televised on ESPN.
