NCAA News Wire
Kansas 81, TCU 72
Jeff Hawkins is an award-winning sportswriter with more than four decades in the industry (print and digital media). A freelance writer/stay-at-home dad since 2008, Hawkins started his career with newspaper stints in Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, Upstate New York and Illinois, where he earned the 2004 APSE first-place award for column writing (under 40,000 circulation). As a beat writer, he covered NASCAR Winston Cup events at NHIS (1999-2003), the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks (2003-06) and the NFL's Carolina Panthers (2011-12). Hawkins penned four youth sports books, including a Michael Jordan biography. Hawkins' main hobbies include mountain bike riding, 5k trail runs at the Whitewater Center in Charlotte, N.C., and live music.
All posts by Jeff HawkinsUpdated15 Oct 2021
LAWRENCE, Kan. — Junior forward Perry Ellis recorded a game-high 23 points Saturday, including a thunderous dunk off a lob feed with 6:45 remaining, to help No. 8 Kansas hold off TCU 81-72 in Allen Fieldhouse.
Ellis, who missed an off-balance layup five days earlier at the final buzzer in a one-point loss at West Virginia, atoned for that slip-up as the Jayhawks improved to 22-5 overall and remained atop the Big 12 at 11-3.
Ellis, who went nine-for-10, also grabbed seven rebounds.
Freshman point guard Devonte Graham came off the bench to spark the Jayhawks at different stretches and netted a career-high 20 points on 7-for-7 shooting. Graham had scored just 17 points the previous seven games.
TCU (16-11, 3-11 Big 12) refused to go away easily. It used a strong of nine unanswered points to answer the lob dunk by Ellis and pull within 68-59. The Horned Frogs could not get any closer than seven after that, however, after coming into the game off their first back-to-back Big 12 wins ever.
Senior guard Trey Zeigler led TCU with 20 points. Senior guard Kyan Anderson added 14 and seven assists.
Sophomore point guard Frank Mason added 14 points and five assists for Kansas.
Graham nailed back-to-back 3-pointers to enable the Jayhawks to gain some first-half separation after the lead was swapped seven times. Graham connected at the 6:32 and 5:29 marks to put the Jayhawks ahead. Another 3-pointer by sophomore guard Brannen Greene boosted the margin to 33-26 and capped a 12-5 run by the Jayhawks.
With his 11 points off the bench, Graham paced Kansas in the first half. Zeigler scored seven first-half points for TCU, which led by four early and forced the Jayhawks into 10 first-half turnovers.
NOTES: Kansas G Brannen Greene entered the game leading the Big 12 with a .553 percentage from 3-point range during conference play. … TCU coach Trent Johnson has the distinction of beating Bill Self’s Kansas teams while coaching for two different schools. His Stanford team beat Kansas in Self’s first season with the Jayhawks. … Kansas extended its homecourt win streak to 22 games. … TCU is assured of finishing the regular season with a winning record for the first time since 2011-12. … Chris Huey, a 6-foot-7 senior manager who has participated for the Kansas scout team at practices, dressed for Saturday’s game. He entered and played the final 35 seconds, but missed his only shot attempt.
