Texas punched its ticket to the NCAA tournament on Saturday after claiming its second-ever Big 12 championship with a 76–56 victory over Kansas in Kansas City, Mo.
The No. 2 seed Longhorns (26–8) capped their dominant season with their second Big 12 title in three years, adding to the program’s recent stretch of success over the past couple of seasons. Texas’s resounding win over top-seeded Kansas (27–7) also marked the Jayhawks’s largest-ever loss in the Big 12 tournament, according to ESPN Stats & Info.
Behind a standout effort from backcourt senior duo of Marcus Carr and Sir’Jabari Rice, Texas, the seventh-ranked team in the nation, hung tough with No. 3 Kansas and eventually took a 39–33 lead into halftime. A pair of baskets by Carr helped increase the lead to start the second half as the Longhorns would seize momentum of the contest and outscore the Jayhawks, 31–19, over the final 18:30 minutes.
