Houston routs Kansas, 76-46, and captures 1st Big 12 regular season title

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POSTED: March 9, 2024 -- 11:33 p.m. CT

HOUSTON, TX -- Fertitta Center

The Houston Cougars routed the Kansas Jayhawks 76-46 Saturday afternoon on Senior Day in front of a Fertitta Center record crowd of 7933 fans. With the win, Houston's record improves to 28-3 overall and 15-3 in the Big 12 Conference.

Houston wins the Big 12 regular season title in its first season in the Big 12 Conference.

With second place Iowa State's road loss to Kansas State earlier Saturday, Houston clinched the Big 12 regular season title outright; however, Houston Head Coach Kelvin Sampson said "I didn't realize Iowa State had lost until someone had said it. They said, 'That means we're champions.'

"I said 'No. We want to do this the right way and win today."

With the scored tied at 2, Houston senior point guard Jamal Shead made a three-pointer for a 5-2 lead with 17:15 to go in the first half.

Houston led the rest of the ball game.

Ja'Vier Francis stole a pass from KU freshman Johnny Furphy and dribbled up the floor and finished with a dunk. Then, Francis caught a lob pass from Shead for an alley-oop slam dunk.

After KJ Adams sank 2 free throws for Kansas, Houston's LJ Cryer hit a pull up jumper for a 11-4 Coogs' lead. Houston scored the next 8 points to lead 19-4 with 11:33 remaining in the first half.

The rout was on. Kansas struggled to make shots while Houston rained down threes to extend its lead to 34-9 with 5:34 to go until halftime. During the huge scoring run, Cryer hit 2 threes; senior Damian Dunn hit 2 threes; and, redshirt-sophomore Emanuel Sharp sank a deep three.

KU's offense settled in the final 5 minutes of the opening half and outscored Houston 12-6 to cut Houston's lead to 40-21 at halftime.

Houston started the second-half scoring with another alley-oop dunk by Ja'Vier Francis.

The Coogs blitzed Kansas with a 13-3 run in the first 4 minutes of the half to lead 53-24. Francis added another dunk while Sharp knocked down 2 more threes.

With 11 plus minutes to go in the game, Kansas starting center Hunter Dickinson injured his right shoulder during a scramble for a rebound. Dickinson trotted off the court in obvious pain and didn't return to the game. After the game, Kansas Head Coach Bill Self said Dickinson dislocated his shoulder and would have an MRI to determine the severity of the injury.

Houston led by as much as 32 points in the closing 2 minutes of the game and cruised to the 30-point victory.

Jamal Shead scored a game-high 13 points to lead 4 Coogs in double-digit scoring. Shead also added 8 assists, 6 rebounds, and 1 steal.

Damian Dunn scored 12 points off the bench for Houston. Dunn made 3 of his 7 three-point attempts and 3 of 4 foul shots.

LJ Cryer scored 11 and J'Wan Roberts added 10 points and 8 rebounds.

Houston outscored Kansas 30-10 in points off turnovers; 17-1 in second chance points; and 28-18 in the paint.

"We're the University of Houston," Coach Sampson said after the game. "This is a damn good school. We live in a damn good city; and, we're a damn good basketball program. And, we should never ever, ever, ever THINK that we should take a backseat to anybody."

NEXT: Houston's next game is Thursday, March 14, in the quarterfinals of the 2024 Big 12 Men's Basketball Championship.

Houston will face the winner of 8-seed TCU / 9-seed Oklahoma second-round matchup. Tip is set for 2 pm CT on ESPN or ESPN2.

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