Kansas easily handles TCU

FORT WORTH, Texas — Andrew Wiggins wasn’t part of the Kansas team that endured one of the school’s most shocking upset losses a year ago.

On Saturday, he made sure the Jayhawks redeemed themselves.

Kansas’ star freshman guard scored a game-high 27 points for the eighth-ranked Jayhawks, who never gave TCU a chance in a 91-69 victory at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum.

Fellow freshman Joel Embiid had 14 points and six rebounds and sophomore forward Perry Ellis led all rebounders with 14 for Kansas, which controlled the inside against the undersized Horned Frogs, who played with only two players over 6-foot-7.

“Last year we didn’t leave out of here very happy,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “It wasn’t just because we didn’t play well, it was because TCU whipped us.

“Tonight, we were efficient offensively and we worked hard defensively in the first half. It was better … a lot better.”

Kansas shot 57 percent from the field and worked over the Horned Frogs inside, outscoring TCU by 14 in paint and collecting 16 more rebounds.

The Jayhawks also had 15 second-chance points — to TCU’s four — in improving to 15-5 and 6-0 in the Big 12, two games ahead of Oklahoma and Texas.

The Frogs stayed winless in conference at 0-7 while falling to 9-10 overall on the season.

Freshman forward Brandon Parrish had 15 points for the Horned Frogs, whose struggles from the field in the first half put them in a hole.

TCU shot just 31 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes, while Kansas blistered the nets during the same timeframe, hitting on 62 percent of its shots.

“They’re good, really good,” said TCU coach Trent Johnson, whose team was outscored only one in the second half. “That’s a basketball team that really competes hard every possession. They have a special group.

Kansas lost here a season ago 62-55 on national television, but TCU didn’t have the manpower to pull a similar upset a year later.

TCU played with only eight scholarship players, including 6-foot-11 freshman center Karviar Shepherd, who sat out most of the first half in foul trouble.

“We’re not deep enough or where we need to be to compete with a team like that,” Johnson said.

Wiggins was 8-for-13 from the field in doing just a little of everything. He also collected five rebounds and had five assists.

Wiggins paced the Jayhawks with 19 points in the first half, including a 3-pointer from the top of the arc that put Kansas up 21 — 43-22 — with 3:50 left.

Kansas heated up in the last 7:30 minutes, hitting 7-of-9 heading into the halftime.

Wiggins was 6-for-8 from the field in the first half and 2-for-3 on 3-pointers.

“I thought without question he didn’t do anything tonight that he couldn’t do in any game,” said Self of Wiggins, who averages 16 points and six rebounds a game.

“I thought this was one of his more aggressive games. He was more thirsty to score in the first half, and that’s what we want.”

TCU, meanwhile, made only 8-of-26 shots in the first half. Parrish’s 3-pointer as time expired cut the Frogs’ deficit to 53-21.

Amric Fields was one of two other Frogs in double figures scoring with 13. Kyan Anderson, who had scored 20 or more points in four of his past nine, had 11 but didn’t record a field goal until the 5:39 mark of the second half.

“They had energy throughout the whole game,” Fields said of Kansas. “When you get in a hole that deep it’s hard.”

NOTES: Kansas is now 12-1 in games in which it shot 50 percent or better. The Jayhawks have shot better than 50 percent in eight of their last 10 games, including five of their past six Big 12 games. … TCU is 2-23 in two-plus seasons in the Big 12, including last season’s upset of Kansas at home. … The Horned Frogs were playing with only 11 players, including three walk-ons. The meeting between these two schools was the third as Big 12 conference peers, but sixth all time, dating to the NCAA Midwest Regional in 1952.