LAWRENCE, Kan. – West Virginia used a second half scoring streak to push its winning streak to eleven  straight as the Mountaineers topped Kansas, 65-55, in the Big 12 opener for both teams at Allen Fieldhouse Thursday night.

The Mountaineers (12-1, 1-0 Big 12) turned their biggest deficit into their biggest lead with a 16-0 run starting near the midpoint of the second half and limited the Jayhawks (7-6, 0-1 Big 12) to just three field goals over the final 11:45 of the game to secure the win.

KU’s Natalie Knight scored a game-high 15 points, one of three Jayhawks in double figures, and helped Kansas to a 46-41 lead in the second half, but an 8:16 scoring drought saw West Virginia take control and eventually claim the victory. Asia Boyd chipped in 12 and Chelsea Gardner had 10 for Kansas.

Christal Caldwell led the Mountaineers with 14 points and was joined in double figures by Asya Bussie (13) and Taylor Palmer (11). West Virginia didn’t shoot particularly well, hitting just 34.9 percent (22-of-63) shots from the field, but the Mountaineers out-rebounded KU, 47-28, including 23 offensive rebounds.

“They had 23 offensive rebounds and we had seven,” Kansas head coach Bonnie Henrickson said. “That was the difference in the game – the extra possessions.”

Kansas trailed by double digits early at 13-3, but Knight poured in five of the first six points and an offense that looked to run in transition cut the lead to 13-12, then a Knight three tied the game at 15-15 with 11:35 to play before half.

No matter how hard the Jayhawks pushed, however, West Virginia seemed to push the lead back out. KU forward Jada Brown tied the game at 19-19, but WVU’s Brooke Hampton hit a three to provide some distance.

Kansas drew close in the final minute of the half as Boyd connected on a long jumper to make it 27-26, before half, then Dakota Gonzalez finally tipped the scale in KU’s favor by intercepting an inbounds pass with five ticks before the break and laid it in to give the Jayhawks a 28-27 lead going into the locker rooms.

The point total was the third-fewest points in a half for Kansas as the season hits its middle third, but held West Virginia to its lowest first half point total of the season.

Kansas pushed the lead to as many as five points in the second half. Boyd hit a contested lay-up and added a free throw to complete the three-point play to give Kansas a 46-41 edge with 11:45 to go.

WVU scored four straight and nearly flipped the script on Boyd, who fouled Linda Stepney on a made lay-up, but a missed bonus kept KU on top 46-45. That would be KU’s final lead, however.

Caldwell drained a jumper to give WVU a 47-46 advantage at 9:04 that prompted a timeout from the Kansas head coach. The Mountaineers then turned their turned KU’s largest lead into its largest deficit.

Kansas went scoreless for more than eight minutes as the Mountaineers rolled up 16 total unanswered points and to a 57-46 advantage.

Jayhawk guard Keyla Morgan hit a three with 3:30 to end the drought and cut the deficit to eight, then hit another three with 1:15 to play but couldn’t draw KU any closer than 60-52. Cece Harper added a three in the final seconds for KU’s third bucket in the last 11 minutes of the game and West Virginia prevailed by 10.

— KU Sports Information —

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Perry Ellis had 21 points and 11 rebounds, Naadir Tharpe added a career-high 20 points and No. 16 Kansas beat Toledo 93-83 on Monday night for the Rockets’ first loss of the season.

Andrew Wiggins also had 20 points and fellow freshman Joel Embiid had 14 points and 10 rebounds for the Jayhawks (9-3), who built a 16-point lead early in the second half.

Toledo (12-1) made one final charge, using some hot outside shooting and sloppiness on the part of Kansas to get within 81-73 on a 3-pointer by Julius Brown with 3:23 left in the game.

Tharpe answered moments later with a free throw and then a driving layup off a miss, and Kansas finally put the game away when Frank Mason fed Wiggins on a run-out for an easy dunk that gave the Jayhawks an 88-76 lead with less than 2 minutes remaining.

— Associated Press —

Thanks to a team-leading effort to help Kansas down Georgetown Saturday, senior forward Tarik Black was awarded Big 12 Conference Newcomer of the Week honors Monday morning.

The award marks the first Big 12 weekly accolade of Black’s career and makes him the fourth different Jayhawk to be recognized by the league this season. He joins freshmen Andrew Wiggins and Joel Embiid, who have also been named Big 12 Newcomers of the Week this season, and sophomore forward Perry Ellis, who was the co-Big 12 Player of the Week last month.

Black finished with 17 points, his most as a Jayhawk, as Kansas won its only game of the week, a convincing 86-64 victory over Georgetown. The Memphis native made all five field goals attempts en route to scoring more points than he had in the previous six games

combined. He was also 7-of-9 (.778) from the charity stripe and added six rebounds, one assist and two blocked shots in 20 minutes. Black needs six points to reach the 1,000-point plateau for his career.

Kansas will take a holiday break, then host Toledo on Dec. 30 at 7 p.m. on Jayhawk IMG TV and close out non-conference play when San Diego State comes to Allen Fieldhouse on Jan. 5. That game will be televised on CBS and will start at either 12:30 or 3:30 p.m., depending on the NFL playoffs.

— KU Sports Information —

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Tarik Black never let his chin drop. He never quit working hard in practice. He never stopped making the rest of his Kansas teammates laugh until their stomachs hurt.

If anything, once he was relegated to the bench, Black did all of that stuff even better.

His positive attitude paid off on Saturday.

Black got a chance to play extended minutes for the first time in weeks against Georgetown, and the Memphis transfer responded by plowing through a physical bunch of Hoyas for 17 points in the 18th-ranked Jayhawks’ 86-64 victory.

”Tarik was better today than at any point in time, but that’s how he’s been practicing every day,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. ”His attitude has been great.”

Black had lost his starting job to freshman Joel Embiid, who also had 17 points against the Hoyas. But while he almost certainly won’t win it back any time soon – Embiid has been that good – he at least gives Kansas two formidable post players capable of dominating a game.

”We can definitely do some damage on the inside,” Black said.

Andrew Wiggins added 12 points and Naadir Tharpe had 10 for the Jayhawks (8-3), who pushed their non-conference home win streak to 67 games in Georgetown’s first visit to Allen Fieldhouse.

The Hoyas (7-3) tried to use the kind of muscle that has suited them so well in the rough-and-tumble Big East, but all they did was get into debilitating foul trouble.

Markel Starks scored 19 points and D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera had 12, but they were forced to carry the burden almost entirely by themselves. Bruising big man Josh Smith, who had been averaging 14.1 points, scored just five before fouling out.

Moses Ayegba and Nate Lubick also fouled out for Georgetown.

”They did a good job of getting us in foul trouble,” Hoyas coach John Thompson III said. ”I think particularly Black played very well today. Whenever we felt like we were making a step toward cutting into the lead, he’d get a rebound or make a three-point play.”

The game was so physical that Jayhawks forward Perry Ellis left early in the second half after taking an elbow to the back of his head. Ellis tried to stay in the game but missed a free throw so badly that he took himself out. He never returned from the locker room.

”If he had a concussion, it’s very, very slight,” Self said. ”He did bruise the nerve in his neck, and that caused the problem. It’s something he’ll be able to come back from in a short time.”

Just as every other team has done this season, Georgetown tried to combat the Jayhawks’ length and athleticism by employing a zone defense in the first half. The only problem was the Hoyas were so mired in foul trouble that they didn’t have anybody to occupy the inside.

Kansas built its 44-34 lead thanks in part to a 14-3 run fueled by its defense. Georgetown at one point went more than 10 1/2 minutes without a field goal, missing five straight attempts, turning the ball over and even getting hit with a shot-clock violation.

”All the credit goes to them,” Lubick said. ”We didn’t come ready to fight.”

Ayegba and Lubick had three fouls each by halftime, and three other Hoyas who spent time guarding the paint had picked up two fouls. That included Smith, who picked up his third in the opening minute of the second half and had to spend long stretches on the bench.

Embiid and Black took advantage of his absence.

When the Jayhawks’ two post players weren’t scoring on an array of layups and dunks, they were getting hacked. Embiid wound up 9 of 12 from the free throw line, while Black was 7 of 9.

Georgetown tried to get back into the game midway through the second half, trimming its deficit to 59-47 on Jabil Trawick’s basket. But frustration boiled over for the Hoyas when Trawick clobbered Wiggins on the way to the basket, and the teams nearly came to blows.

Wiggins responded by knocking down a 3-pointer in Trawick’s face from the wing, and in a matter of minutes, the Jayhawks had built a comfortable lead. Embiid put an exclamation mark on it when he followed up a miss by Wiggins with a thunderous jam that left the entire goal shaking.

It set off a festive celebration of the Jayhawks’ first game at the Phog in 29 days.

”The last couple practices before this game, I told the guys it would be a fun game to come back home,” Tharp said. ”I knew it was going to be exciting. I knew it was going to be turned up in there. It was just a good game.”

— Associated Press —

Kansas bolstered one of its most improved units from last season while adding needed depth and competition at another as the Jayhawks signed three junior college student-athletes to National Letters of Intent on the first day of the midyear signing period Wednesday.

The Jayhawks added a pair of defensive backs in Ronnie Davis (Northeastern Oklahoma A&M) and Anthony Smithson (Hartnell College) to a secondary that held opposing offenses to nearly 40 less yards per game and intercepted 14 opponent passes, the most since 2008. Kansas also signed talented offensive line prospect Keyon Haughton (Georgia Military College).

Kansas finished the 2013 season with a 3-9 overall record, including the team’s first win over a Big 12 Conference opponent since 2010, and looks to add to the positive momentum further as it builds the 2014 signing class. The midyear signing period comes to a close Jan. 15, with football’s annual National Signing Day on Feb. 5.

— KU Sports Information —

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Joel Embiid had just picked up his second foul, and like so many other games this season, he knew he was going to be spending the rest of the first half sitting on the Kansas bench.

The 7-foot freshman vowed to make up for it in the second half.

Embiid scored 16 of his career-high 18 points over the final 20 minutes, leading the No. 13 Jayhawks to an 80-63 victory over New Mexico on Saturday night that ended a two-game skid.

”I was frustrated, even though I didn’t think the second one was a foul,” said Embiid, a native of Cameroon who’s only been playing basketball for a few years. ”Yeah, I wanted it bad, and they wanted to throw me the ball and let me score, and that’s what I needed to do.”

Perry Ellis scored 21 points and Andrew Wiggins, despite dealing with foul trouble all night, added 11 for the Jayhawks (7-3), who led 39-38 at halftime before using two big runs to put it away.

It was the Jayhawks’ ninth straight win at the Sprint Center, including their run to last year’s Big 12 tournament title. After dropping games at Colorado and Florida, the win also kept Kansas from losing three straight non-conference games for the first time since the 1982-83 season.

”We knew we had to hit them first,” said the Jayhawks’ Wayne Selden, who finished with 10 points. ”That was our main goal, be the first one on the floor and be the most aggressive.”

Cameron Bairstow and Kendall Williams had 24 points apiece for New Mexico (7-2), but that was about it for the Lobos. Alex Kirk, who came into the game averaging 18.6 points, was held to just five on 2-for-8 shooting before fouling out with 2:53 remaining in the game.

New Mexico was just 2 of 14 from beyond the arc.

”We played really well in the first half, but I thought Kansas played really good. I thought that was the best offensive game Kansas has played all year,” New Mexico coach Craig Neal said. ”We got into some foul trouble and did some things we weren’t used to doing, and we have to improve on that.”

The Jayhawks likewise struggled with foul trouble in the first half, depriving coach Bill Self of Ellis, Embiid and Jamari Traylor for long periods of time. That allowed the 6-foot-9 Bairstow to go to work inside, scoring on an array of putbacks and spin moves.

The senior from Brisbane, Australia, had 16 points at the break.

”We wanted to put them in a position to really feel pressure,” Bairstow said.

The Lobos got within one at halftime on a buzzer-beating basket by Arthur Edwards, but Kansas quickly seized control with a 16-4 run to start the second half.

Embiid had nine points and Ellis the other seven during the spurt, but it was really fueled by the Jayhawks’ defense, which finally slowed down Bairstow and Williams on the other end.

The Lobos chipped away at their 55-42 deficit, most of the surge coming from the foul line. By the time Williams converted a four-point play, New Mexico had managed to scrap and claw to 63-58 with 8:03 left, and briefly silence a crowd heavily in favor of Kansas.

That’s when the Jayhawks turned to Ellis and Embiid again.

Embiid answered Williams with a pair of foul shots, Ellis added a free throw moments later, and Embiid threw down a dunk as the crowd roared. Ellis added a dunk of his own moments later, forcing New Mexico to burn a timeout that didn’t do a whole lot of good.

”Our bigs were really good,” Self said. ”Perry was the most consistent one and he scored the most points, but there was a stretch in the second half where Joel looked pretty good.”

Williams missed after the timeout and Embiid scored again at the other end, pushing the Jayhawks’ lead to 74-59 with 4 1/2 minutes remaining in the game.

”We felt really good after halftime, really fought them off. It really boiled down to their second-half run,” Williams said. ”That was really the story.”

Kansas merely coasted from there, wrapping up the victory in the first meeting between the schools since the 1964-65 season and ending nearly a month spent playing games away from Allen Fieldhouse.

”We came out a lackadaisical to start the second half and they took advantage of it,” Neal said. ”Kansas came out really aggressive in the second half and that cost us.”

— Associated Press —

Kansas first-year safety Isaiah Johnson led Kansas with five interceptions and was second on the team with 73 tackles and for those efforts was named the Big 12 Conference Defensive Newcomer of the Year Wednesday. Johnson was one of eight Jayhawks, including All-Big 12 Second Team selections Ben Heeney and James Sims, honored by the league’s coaches.

Johnson, a sophomore junior college transfer from Cary, N.C., was one of seven Jayhawks to receive honorable mention honors in 10 different categories and was KU’s first Defensive Newcomer of the Year since Chris Harris was tabbed with the title by the Associated Press in 2007. Heeney and Sims, who were both honored by the Associated Press Monday, earned All-Big 12 Second Team honors for the second consecutive season.

Kansas players who earned All-Big 12 Honorable Mention were Ngalu Fusimalohi (OL), Johnson (DB), Dexter McDonald (DB), Jimmay Mundine (TE), Trevor Pardula (P, ST PoY), JaCorey Shepherd (KR/PR, DB), and Sims (Off. PoY).

A wide receiver when he first entered college, Johnson was successful not only as a newcomer to the Jayhawks, but as a newcomer to the defensive backfield. The former Iowa Western Community College defensive back finished the 2013 campaign with the most interceptions by a Jayhawk since 2008, when Darrell Stuckey also picked off five passes. One of Johnson’s best games came on the road at Texas, when he recorded five tackles and intercepted two passes.

Heeney, a junior from Hutchinson, Kan., missed a pair of games in the middle of the conference slate but still finished with a team-best 88 total stops, including 11.5 tackles for loss and the first three interceptions of his career. Heeney, also selected as an All-Big 12 Second Team selection by the Associated Press Monday, was fourth in the conference with 8.7 tackles per game and ranked fifth in tackles-for-loss per game with 1.15. Heeney reached double figures in tackles in six of his 10 games played, including four Big 12 contests.

Sims, who was picked as an All-Big 12 First Team selection on Monday by a panel of media, was the Big 12’s leading rusher in conference games with 92.1 yards per contest and finished the 2013 campaign with a league-best 1,110 yards overall. That mark made Sims the first player in Kansas history to rush for more than 1,000 yards in back-to-back seasons. Sims rushed for at least 70 yards in nine of 12 games this season, including a career-best 211 and three touchdowns in KU’s win over West Virginia.

A senior from Irving, Texas, Sims closed his Kansas career among the leaders in several categories. Sims’ 3,592 rushing yards rank third on KU’s all-time charts, his 34 career rushing touchdowns is second, and his breakout performance against the Mountaineers was the 15th-best single-game rushing total by a Kansas player.

Sims and junior punter Trevor Pardula each earned honorable mention for specialty awards, with Sims receiving votes for offensive player of the year and Pardula votes for special teams player of the year. Pardula earned honorable mention honors at punter after booting 24 punts of more than 50 yards, including a career-best 78 yard punt, for an average of 43.7 yards per kick. Pardula also placed 25 punts inside the 20.

Fusimalohi, a junior offensive lineman from Daly City, Calif., started every game of his first season at Kansas on the interior of the line and earned honorable mention honors for helping open holes for Sims and the Kansas rushing attack.

McDonald, a junior from Kansas City, Mo., and Shepherd, a junior from Mesquite, Texas, proved to be a formidable duo at corner in their first seasons as full-time starters and earned honorable mention after logging two interceptions each and combining for 23 pass break-ups. Shepherd was also received honorable mention for his return ability after returning 24 kicks for an average of 22.8 yards per return, including a season-best 69-yard kickoff return against Oklahoma State.

Mundine was also tabbed as honorable mention after he finished the year as KU’s leader in receiving touchdowns (5), was second in receiving yards (229) and tied for third in total receptions (20). Mundine caught a pass in each of the first eight games of the season, including four straight with touchdown catches. Four of Mundine’s five touchdowns came against Big 12 opponents.

Kansas finished the 2013 season with a 3-9 overall record, including the team’s first win over a Big 12 Conference opponent since 2010.

— KU Sports Information —

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — As Scottie Wilbekin jogged off the court, students chanted his name.

It was a feel-good moment for a senior who was suspended to start the season and struggled in last week’s loss at No. 9 Connecticut.

Wilbekin scored a career-high 18 points, Dorian Finney-Smith added 15 and No. 19 Florida held on to beat No. 13 Kansas 67-61 on Tuesday night.

The Gators bounced back from a buzzer-beater loss against the Huskies and extended their home winning streak to 21 games. The latest victory came in the Big 12-SEC Challenge and surely will be meaningful when the NCAA tournament seeds are settled in March.

”It just feels like we’re coming together as a whole,” Wilbekin said.

Wilbekin, who injured his right ankle against UConn eight days ago, made 7 of 12 shots and added six assists. It was a much better performance than his last game, when he had more turnovers (3) than assists (2).

Some of his best work Tuesday came in the second half as Kansas kept slicing into Florida’s lead. Wilbekin had a teardrop runner, a driving layup and a three-point play.

”We were teetering there a little bit,” Gators coach Billy Donovan said. ”He made some plays that really helped our team.”

Freshman Andrew Wiggins led the Jayhawks (6-3) with 26 points and 11 rebounds – his first double-double and both career highs. Kansas has lost two straight, both on the road.

This one wasn’t nearly as heart-breaking as Saturday’s loss at Colorado, which hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to win 75-72.

The Gators (7-2) went on a 21-0 run and led by as many as 18 points in the first half.

”I think we should have had an electrical shortage and canceled the game after (leading 10-3),” Kansas coach Bill Self said. ”We made a couple of shots and played pretty well the first four or five minutes. But we were awful after that. … That was not a good team playing there at all, and when things started to go bad, we didn’t do anything to stop it. That was frustrating.”

Self called several timeouts, but couldn’t do anything to stop Florida’s momentum.

Surely Florida’s four senior starters and playing at home were factors, especially when pitted against Kansas’ young and inexperienced lineup.

”I’m not sure young guys have ever faced a situation like that,” Gators center Patric Young said. ”We’ve been blown out before. We’ve blown people out before. We know both sides of the spectrum. … We did a great job turning them over.”

The Jayhawks committed 16 turnovers in the first 20 minutes – as many as they had in any game this season.

”We’ve got to get everyone playing together,” Self said. ”I can’t blame it all on youth. … A lot of it may be youth, but I think we can still play better individually.”

Kansas clawed its way out of the huge hole and made it 60-55 on Wiggins’ 3-pointer with 55.8 seconds remaining. It was his second 3 in the final 1:20.

Florida closed it out from the free-throw line – barely.

The Gators made 20 of 34 free throws, including nine of their final 11.

Kansas got it as close as 65-61 with 10.9 seconds left. Florida’s Kasey Hill ended any chance of a comeback by draining two free throws.

Aside from Wiggins, who made 7 of 15 shots, Kansas had no one else score in double figures.

The biggest issue for the Jayhawks was 24 turnovers. Many of those came in the decisive early run.

The Gators, who missed six of their first seven shots in the game, got hot from the field. Hill, returning to the rotation after missing the last four games with a high-ankle sprain, got the spurt going with a driving layup.

Wilbekin had a 3-pointer, a floater in the lane and a driving bank shot in the huge run.

Finney-Smith and Young came up big, too. Finney-Smith, the former Virginia Tech starter who is finding his niche in Gainesville, hit two 3-pointers. And Young was a beast in the paint and on the boards.

Young’s three-point play gave Florida a 32-14 lead with 4:14 remaining in the first half.

But for everything the Gators did on the offensive end of the court, they were even better on defense.

Donovan had his team playing a 1-3-1 zone for much of the game, with big men on the wings and the team’s best defender (Wilbekin) running the baseline. It forced poor shots and mistakes.

”I think anything that could go wrong went wrong,” Self said. ”It’s just sad that you have to get down like that before you come out and play with reckless abandonment.”

— Associated Press —

Kansas running back James Sims was selected as a member of the Associated Press All-Big 12 First Team and for the second consecutive year linebacker Ben Heeney was named to the All-Big 12 Second Team as the news organization released its annual selections Monday afternoon.

Sims and Heeney joined a total of 52 Big 12 football student-athletes selected by a panel of 20 media who regularly cover the league. Baylor quarterback Bryce Petty and Texas defensive end Jackson Jeffcoat were named the offensive and defensive players of the year, respectively, while West Virginia running back Charles Sims and Oklahoma linebacker Dominique Alexander were the newcomers of the year.

James Sims, a senior from Irving, Texas, was the Big 12’s leading rusher in conference games with 92.1 yards per contest and finished the 2013 campaign with a league-best 1,110 yards overall. That mark made Sims the first player in Kansas history to rush for more than 1,000 yards in back-to-back seasons. Sims rushed for at least 70 yards in nine of 12 games this season, including a career-best 211 and three touchdowns in KU’s win over West Virginia.

An AP All-Big 12 Second Teamer last season, Sims closed his Kansas career among the leaders in several categories. Sims’ 3,592 rushing yards rank third on KU’s all-time charts, his 34 career rushing touchdowns is second, and his surge against the Mountaineers was the 15th-best single-game rushing total by a Kansas player.

An injury was the only thing that slowed Heeney, a junior from Hutchinson, Kan., who had a breakout season in 2012 and continued as KU’s leading tackler in 2013. Heeney missed two games in the middle of the conference slate but still finished with 88 total stops, including 11.5 tackles for loss and the first three interceptions of his career. Heeney was fourth in the conference with 8.7 tackles per game and ranked fifth in tackles-for-loss per game with 1.15.

Heeney, a second team honoree last year, reached double figures in tackles in six of his 10 games played, including four Big 12 contests. Heeney posted 12 tackles, 2.0 tackles-for-loss, and an interception in the Jayhawks’ conference opener against Texas Tech before leaving the TCU game a week later with a knee injury and missing two starts.

The Associated Press will announce its selection for Big 12 Conference Coach of the Year in the coming days.

Kansas closed its second year under the direction of Charlie Weis with a 3-9 overall record, including the team’s first win over a Big 12 Conference opponent since 2010.

— KU Sports Information —

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — Long after the kids from Kansas have started raking in their NBA bucks, Askia Booker of Colorado will still be talking about the day he struck it big – the day he made the shot at the buzzer to beat the Jayhawks.

Booker grabbed an in-bounds pass, dribbled twice, took two long steps, then launched the 3-pointer that gave Colorado a 75-72 victory Saturday and left him gasping for air underneath a pile of court-storming Buffs fans.

It was Colorado’s first win over No. 6 Kansas (6-2) in the last 20 tries – a stretch dating to 2003.

”Unless I’m in the NBA championship, that’s the only thing that could top that,” Booker said.

Odds are, he won’t be. Many of these Kansas players could. There are, by most estimations, at least two lottery picks and two more first-round prospects on Bill Self’s typically stacked roster.

And, yes, that talent gap showed while Colorado (9-1) was squandering a six-point lead over the final 1:44 – a comeback capped when one of those first-round prospects, Perry Ellis, hit a shot to tie it at 72 with 4 seconds left.

But after a timeout, Buffs forward Xavier Johnson squeezed an in-bounds pass from the corner of the backcourt to Booker, who dribbled just past the back foot of the massive Buffs logo at center court – or about even with where John Elway’s courtside seats were located – and launched the shot from 30 feet.

Nothing but net.

”I’m not sure I ever thought that would happen,” Booker said.

The fans exploded onto the court, straight past Elway, and gang tackled Booker, a junior who is trying to lead the Buffs to three straight appearances in the NCAA tournament for the first time in history.

This win will look mighty good on their resume. It’s their ninth straight – CU hasn’t lost since its opener against Baylor – and it marks only the second CU win in the last 48 meetings between the former Big 12 foes.

”It’s hard for me to put this win in historical perspective,” CU coach Tad Boyle said. ”But for where this program is in the evolution stage, this is kind of a hump game.”

Booker and Spencer Dinwiddie led CU with 15 points each.

After Colorado left for the Pac-12, the schools kept the series going mainly because Boyle, who has led this renaissance in Boulder, is a former Kansas player. He was on the Jayhawks roster, in fact, back in 1982, when Colorado won one of its very few games over Kansas. Kansas, which won 90-54 in Lawrence last season, still leads one of the most lopsided series west of the Mississippi 123-40.

Freshman Andrew Wiggins led the Jayhawks, who had been ranked second but have now lost two of their last three, with 22 points.

Frank Mason had 11 and Ellis 10 as Kansas lost despite hitting 52.9 percent from the floor.

”We’re not playing very good,” Self said. ”We’re not playing good at all. The pieces just aren’t quite fitting yet and we’re trying to find ourselves.”

CU won this game in part because Boyle abandoned his usual man-to-man defense and put Colorado in a zone, knowing Kansas was most dangerous inside, not at the perimeter.

Another key difference: Colorado shot 37 free throws – 17 more than the Jayhawks, who were in foul trouble almost from the start in this one.

Dinwiddie and Booker each missed one of two from the line down the stretch, which helped Kansas pull even after trailing 68-62.

Booker’s free throw gave CU a 71-68 lead with 18.7 seconds left, and on the next possession, Dinwiddie fouled Wiggins while he was shooting a 3-pointer. But Wiggins made only two of the free throws and Kansas had to foul.

That’s when Dinwiddie made one of two, to set up the tying shot from Ellis, then Booker’s game-winner – a nice book end, if you will, with the 3-pointer he made as the first-half buzzer was going off.

Booker’s two long steps before launching the game-winner were a topic of conversation in the Kansas locker room.

”I thought he travelled, but you know that Euro move,” Self said. ”We let him catch it. That’s a little frustrating.”

Small consolation on this day, but the last two times Kansas has lost to the Buffs – 1991 and 2003 – the Jayhawks have gone on to the Final Four.

They’ll be in the mix again this year, for sure.

On this magical day in Boulder, the Colorado contingent felt like champs, too.

”For our fans and our players, it’s huge, absolutely,” Boyle said. ”But I want our fans to understand, it’s not about Kansas. It’s about Colorado. That’s where we need to get this program.”

— Associated Press —