National Basketball Association
Kansas 83, Texas A&M 66
When: 3:00 PM ET, Thursday, March 8, 2012
Where: Sprint Center, Kansas City, Missouri
Officials:
# Randy Heimerman, # Paul Janssen, # Mark Whitehead
Attendance:
18972
By SportsDirect Inc.
Kansas 83, Texas A&M 66: Elijah Johnson scored a career-high 26 points, leading the No. 3 Jayhawks’ blazing hot shooting display in an easy victory over the Aggies in the Big 12 quarterfinals.
Top-seeded Kansas (27-5), which shot 61 percent, will face No. 4 seed Baylor in the semifinals on Friday.
Texas A&M (14-18), the No. 9 seed, needed a miracle run to make the NCAA tournament, but this one was over by halftime.
The Aggies got off to a great start and actually led by four midway through the first half, but Kansas closed the half on a 23-7 run to take a 40-28 lead into the break. Johnson led the way with 15 first-half points on 3-of-4 shooting from long range.
After the break, the Jayhawks quickly extended the lead to 15 on a Johnson layup that made it 50-35, and then the edge swelled to 63-43 on a Thomas Robinson free throw with 12:09 remaining.
Kansas had no trouble scoring inside against the Aggies, who entered the contest with the league’s top-rated scoring defense. Robinson had 19 points and 10 rebounds for his 23rd double-double of the season.
Khris Middleton scored 24 points to lead Texas A&M.
GAME NOTEBOOK: The Jayhawks have won this tournament in five of the past six seasons … Kansas coach Bill Self was able to rest his starters for the last few minutes of the game … The Jayhawks went 2-0 against Baylor this season, winning by an average of 16 points.
Top Game Performances
Texas A&M |
|
Kansas |
Khris Middleton 24 |
Scoring |
Elijah Johnson 26 |
Khris Middleton 3 |
Assists |
Elijah Johnson 4 |
Ray Turner 8 |
Rebounds |
Thomas Robinson 10 |
Khris Middleton 5 |
Free Throws Made |
Elijah Johnson 5 |
Khris Middleton 4 |
Steals |
Elijah Johnson 2 |
N/A |
Blocks |
Jeff Withey 4 |
Team Stats Summary
Team |
Points |
FG% |
3PM-3PA |
FTM-FTA |
Assists |
Rebounds |
Blocks |
Steals |
Turnovers |
Texas A&M
|
66 |
39.1 |
3-13 |
13-17 |
8 |
26 |
0 |
8 |
11 |
Kansas
|
83 |
61.4 |
10-15 |
19-28 |
19 |
30 |
4 |
8 |
13 |