McCormack, Agbaji power Jayhawks to Big 12 Title over Red Raiders, 74-65

Whoever coined the phrase "Defense Wins Championships" obviously never envisioned the possibility of this Big 12 Championship game. Of course, those who followed the Big 12 all year probably didn't either. For a league that prided itself on numerous fantastic defenses all season, it was really hard to find any shred of defensive excellence in the T-Mobile center on Saturday.

For large stretches of the game, it seemed like defense was considered optional, but ultimately the defenses showed up. When it was all said and done, the Kansas Jayhawks pulled out the victory to win their 12th Big 12 Tournament Championship 74-65 over the Texas Tech Red Raiders.

Game Flow

The game started with a frenetic pace, as both teams raced up and down the court, as if to outrun any semblance of defense. The game was 20-20 before the first 8 minutes of the game had elapsed.

The scoring slowed down over the rest of the half, but not because the defense stepped up. Instead, the quick pace led to both teams making poor decisions and committing unforced errors, and the shots stopped falling. The rest of the half was a mix of good and bad plays by both teams, and the Jayhawks went into the break with a one point advantage.

The second half was a seesaw, as every time that Kansas tried to pull away, the Red Raiders would make a run back to make it a close game again. But Texas Tech took their final lead as part of a 7-0 run to go up 54-51 just after the under 12 media timeout.

But from there, it was basically all Kansas. An Ochai Agbaji layup with 10:34 to go put the Jayhawks up for good, and a combination of good pressure defense and a Jalen Wilson offensive explosion let Kansas extend the lead to 8 before Texas Tech started fouling with 2:27 remaining. 

Top Performers

Looking over the box score, there were a LOT of guys who could have deserved honors here, but I had to limit it to only three.