During a stretch that began in the final stages of the first half and carried over to the second half Saturday in Tucson, Kansas freshman guard Darryn Peterson scored or assisted on 19-of-21 Jayhawks points.
Bolstered by that sequence, Bill Self‘s team rallied all the way back to within two points of Arizona. That is, before the No. 2 Wildcats (27-2, 14-2 Big 12) blew the game open again and coasted to an 84-61 win over the No. 14 Jayhawks (21-8, 11-5).
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In the process, Arizona clinched a share of the Big 12 regular season title, despite the 24 points Peterson, a top NBA Draft prospect, put forth.
Another projected first-round pick, Koa Peat was back on the court for the Wildcats after missing the past three games with an injury, reportedly a muscle strain in his lower leg, that the standout freshman forward suffered in a loss to then-No. 16 Texas Tech on Feb. 14.
Peat finished with 12 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists and 1 steal. He thundered home a two-handed dunk on the break to the tune of a raucous McKale Center late in a first half that saw the Wildcats outscore the Jayhawks 24-12 in the paint.
On a mission to avenge their Feb. 9 road defeat to Kansas, a setback that tainted Arizona’s 23-0 start to the 2025-26 campaign, the Wildcats led by as many as 18 points in the first half.
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They were up by 16 less than seven minutes into the game, thanks to a 19-0 run that featured eight points from Peat. He also delivered a beautiful post pass over his left shoulder to center Motiejus Krivas early in that surge. The 7-foot-2 big man from Lithuania cashed in for a slam.
Krivas clocked out with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Of the seven Arizona players who played meaningful minutes Saturday, five scored in double figures. Head coach Tommy Lloyd‘s squad was fittingly piloted by its leading scorer, Brayden Burries. The freshman guard polished off the early-game run with a 3 and a layup.
Later, after Kansas staged its Peterson-led comeback, Arizona countered by scoring 19 of the game’s next 21 points, with Burries wrapping that stretch with another 3-pointer. He had 20 points, 12 rebounds and 5 assists on the day, joining Krivas with a double-double.
Arizona turned defense into offense as it recreated some breathing room, en route to establishing a new sizable lead. Notably, Ivan Kharchenkov deflected a Peterson 3-point attempt, leading to a layup from senior point guard Jaden Bradley.
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Bradley collected six consecutive points during that fateful second-half run that spelled doom for Kansas.
The Jayhawks were dominated on the glass. They were outrebounded 48-26. It didn’t help their cause that they shot a season-low 33.8% from the floor.
A silver lining for Self and Co. is that Peterson showed incredible effort, particularly in the second half. The highly touted freshman has been scrutinized heavily this season for checking himself out of games and for missing others completely for a variety of reasons.
Against Arizona on Saturday, Peterson chased his own misses, knocked down outside shots and then navigated double-teams by passing out of them to set up his teammates for scoring opportunities while willing his team back into the game.
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That’s progress for Kansas. But it’s looking up at Arizona in the Big 12 table, and so is everyone else.
