FORT WORTH, Texas — Kansas, the No. 1-seeded team in the NCAA Tournament Midwest Regional, followed the lead of fellow top seeds Baylor and Gonzaga on Thursday and drilled No. 16 seed Texas Southern 83-56 on Thursday night at Dickies Arena.
Remy Martin scored 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting, while Christian Braun had 14 points, five rebounds and four assists; Dajuan Harris 12 points; Jalen Wilson and Ochai Agbaji 11 points apiece as the Jayhawks (29-6), the third No. 1 seed to take the court, advanced to a second-round matchup Saturday against Creighton.
The No. 9-seed Bluejays of the Big East Conference, defeated No. 8-seed San Diego State, 72-69, in overtime Thursday at Dickies Arena before KU tipped off. Baylor, the No. 1 seed in the East Regional, slugged No. 16-seed Norfolk State 85-49, while Gonzaga, the No. 1 seed in the West, used a strong second half to cruise past Georgia State 93-72.
Arizona, the No. 1 seed in the South, will play Wright State on Friday in San Diego. With its 3-0 effort on Friday, No. 1 seeds improved to 146-1 against No. 16s.
UMBC remains the only 16 to beat a No. 1, 74-54 over Virginia in the 2018 NCAA Tournament. Seeding began in 1979. John Walker scored 13 points for Texas Southern (19-13), which defeated Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 76-67 in a play-in game on Tuesday night in Dayton, Ohio.
The first half, in which KU led 47-19, was showtime for the Jayhawks, specifically senior guard Martin and sophomore guard Harris. Martin scored nine points on 4-of-5 shooting with four assists in 11 minutes.
Two of his points came off a breakaway slam dunk in which he hung on the rim for a second or two.
Martin also hit a deep three and had pinpoint passes for assists to Harris and David McCormack for baskets. McCormack finished with nine points and seven rebounds. Harris, who played 17 minutes the first half, scored 12 points on 5-of-5 shooting (2-of-2 threes).
McCormack scored four points with six rebounds, while Mitch Lightfoot, who hurt his left knee in Saturday’s Big 12 title victory over Texas Tech, had three points and four boards in seven minutes the initial half.
He did not play the second half, ostensibly because he was not needed. Before the game, on Jayhawk GameDay Live, coach Bill Self commented on Lightfoot’s injury and progress during rehab.
“He’s not 100%,” Self said, “so let’s not get it like, ‘If he’s out there he’ll have the same effectiveness that he has (in past).’ He won’t. He could in a couple days though, because it’s healing so fast.”
KU has won six straight games since a loss to TCU on March 1 at Schollmaier Arena on TCU’s campus, 3.2 miles from Dickies Arena. KU improved to 5-0 against Texas Southern. KU also won its 15th straight first-round NCAA Tournament game. The streak started in 2007. The Jayhawks are making their 50th NCAA Tournament appearance.
