Martin's First Half, Agbaji's Second, Push Jayhawks into the Sweet 16

It's often said that the three-point shot is the great equalizer in the spot of basketball. If you needed proof, the Kansas win over Creighton in the second round of the NCAA tournament had plenty of it for you.

The Jayhawks started off with a good but uneven performance, but hot shooting from beyond the arc for the Bluejays let them hang around in this game much longer than expected. But the Jayhawks did enough down the stretch to pull out a 79-72 to advance to the Sweet 16.

Game Flow

The Jayhawks were challenged from the beginning, as Creighton won the tip and immediately scored on a long 3-point shot by Ryan Hawkins. That was a sign of things to come.

Over the course of the first half, the Jayhawks out-rebounded the Bluejays 25-15, had 8 second chance points to Creighton's 5, led in points in the paint 18-6 and was a perfect 8-8 from the free throw line. They also shot 41.2% while Creighton shot 37.5%. Remy Martin was by far the most efficient scorer, netting 16 points on 9 shots. After all that, they only led by 1.

What was the difference? Creighton shot 8-15 from beyond the arc, while Kansas was only 3-9. And Martin was the ONLY playing who was efficient on offense.

The game turned in the second half. Creighton cooled off considerably from beyond the arc, making on 3 of 14 shots from that distance. But Martin struggled to score, and while David McCormack come out of the gate strong, he faded quickly. Stepping up in the half was Ochai Agbaji, as he led the rest of the team with 13 of his 15 points in the second period. After getting up by nine with just over eight minutes remaining, Creighton methodically

Key Players