PAGE 6
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2012
1
THE UNIVERSITY
Kansas 30|40----70 Oklahoma State 22|36----58
KANSAS 70, OKL
JAYHAWK STAT LEADERS
Points
Taylor 27
Rebounds
Robinson 11
Assists
Johnson 6
Player Pts FG-FGA Rebs A TO's Thomas Robinson 17 6-15 11 2 2 Jeff Withey 6 3-5 2 0 0 Tyshawn Taylor 27 10-15 2 2 2 Travis Releford 4 1-2 2 1 0 Elijah Johnson 5 1-5 7 6 2 Conner Teahan 5 2-5 2 1 1 Kevin Young 4 2-2 2 2 0 Justin Wesley 2 0-0 4 0 0 Totals 70 26-50 32 14 7
OKLAHOMA STATE
Player Pts FG-FGA Rebs A TO's Michael Cobbins 0 0-5 6 3 1 Brian Williams 20 7-11 4 1 1 Phillip Jurick 0 0-0 3 1 2 Keiton Page 29 10-19 3 1 0 Markel Brown 7 2-9 4 4 4 Cezar Guerrero 2 1-3 2 2 2 Marek Soucek 0 0-0 0 0 0 Christian Sager 0 0-0 0 0 0 Totals 58 20-47 22 12 10
GAME TO REMEMBER
Tyshawn Taylor, senior gaurd
In his final matchup with the elusive Keiton Page, Taylor shined. He scored 27 points and continued to match Page's three-point assault. When the Jayhawks are desperate for points, Taylor is still their guy. Now, as a leader of the Jayhawks, Taylor has his own Big 12 title.
Taylor
GAME TO FORGET
Jeff Withey, junior center
After hurting his ankle against Missouri on Saturday, Withey played, but struggled. Self said Withey should make the nottop-10 in SportsCenter after he passed the ball to a referee. Withey committed three fouls in just 16 minutes played. His ankle likely didn't play a major role, or Self wouldn't have played him at all.
Withey
QUOTE OF THE GAME
"We got eight, baby. This one feels good, too."
Thomas Robinson, forward
Robinson
KEY STATS
Oklahoma State forwards and centers didn't score a point.
Taylor scored this many points, his second highest total of the season.
The Jayhawks shot this percentage from the field in the second half.
60%
84. 5% Page and Williams scored this percentage of their team's points.
Kansas has won eight straight Big 12 titles, and now it's outright.
NOTES
- Kansas leads the all-time series with Oklahoma State 106-53
- Bill Self is now 10-7 all-time against Oklahoma State
- With the win, Kansas captured their eighth consecutive Big 12 regular season title.
- Tyshawn Taylor has now scored 20 or more points on eight occasions
A
MEN'S BASKET
Tyshawn Taylor at the top of his game
KORY CARPENTER
STILLWATER, Okla.— If Thomas Robinson had all the hype coming into this season, Tyshawn Taylor raised all of the questions, or at least most of them.
kcarpenter@kansan.com
He had a game-high 11 turnovers in the loss to Duke in the Maui Invitational. Against Ohio State on Dec. 10 in Allen Fieldhouse, he gave the ball away seven times.
Since conference play began, however, something changed.
Most of those questions stemmed from Taylor's carelessness when the ball was in his hands.
"I started shooting more and stopped passing," Taylor chuckled.
The beginning of this season wasn't much different.
after Kansas' 70-58 victory over Oklahoma State Monday night. "That's serious, though. I feel like early in the season I was a little bit indecisive in my game, not really knowing what to do. And once I started to score the ball pretty well and people started to guard me different, it opened a lot of things up for me."
Taylor had 20 points or more on just two occasions in nonconference play. He's reached the 20-point plateau eight times in Big 12 games including his 27-point performance Monday night against the Cowboys.
Offense wasn't his only responsibility in Stillwater — even though the Jayhawks needed his scoring desperately, with only two players scoring more than six points —
Taylor was also given the task of guarding Oklahoma State senior guard Keiton Page, on Page's senior night no less.
Page finished with 29 points and coach Bill Self was not pleased with Taylor's defense at times. Self said he and Taylor argued about the defensive assignment in a team huddle.
"Tyshawn Taylor kept making big shots," Oklahoma State coach Travis Ford said.
"I kept telling our guys. "The time's good, the score is right, we just need to just go on a run here at some point." And he would just always make a big shot."
"I told Elijah, 'He can't guard him; You take him,' and he got kind of upset at that and he did a better job later," Self said. "Fortunately for us, he was able to match him basically basket for basket down the stretch when we had to make a couple of plays."
Page narrowly won the individual matchup, but Taylor's timely scores, which included four three-pointers, were enough to keep the
Cowboys at a comfortable distance throughout the game.
Kansas clinched the outright Big 12 regular season title and Taylor is playing as well as he's ever played in a Kansas uniform. He credited his teammates and Self for trusting him as well as a good amount of maturation.
"I've been a starter for four years so I feel like I've been in a lot of these situations before."
Edited by Anna Allen
Junior forward Thomas Robinson flies over OSU's Philip Jurick for a dunk during the second half of Monday night's matchup at Gallagher-Iba Arena
CHRIS NEAL/KANSAN
CHRIS NEAL/KANSAN
Freshman guard Naadir Tharpe consults head coach Bill Self about OSU's defense during the second half of Monday night's victory over the Cowboys, 70-58.
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