Kingston Flemings scored 21 points, fellow freshman Chris Cenac Jr. had 17 points and 14 rebounds, and fifth-ranked Houston rolled past poor-shooting and lackluster No. 14 Kansas 69-47 in the semifinals of the Big 12 Tournament on Friday night.
The second-seeded Cougars (28-5) held the third-seeded Jayhawks without a field goal for more than 10 minutes at point in the game, ultimately breezing into another championship matchup with second-ranked Arizona on Saturday night.
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Houston beat the Wildcats 72-64 last year for its first Big 12 Tournament title.
Darryn Peterson had 14 points to lead the Jayhawks (23-10), who had beaten the Cougars in their only regular-season matchup. But the Jayhawks were a whole lot better that night in Allen Fieldhouse than they were at T-Mobile Center, where they were 6 for 31 from the field in the second half and shot 24.6% overall in their lowest-scoring game of the season.
With the relentless defense that’s become a hallmark of coach Kelvin Sampson, the Cougars controlled the game right from the start, making things especially difficult for Kansas big men Flory Bidunga and Bryson Tiller in the paint.
Most of the Jayhawks’ offense came from Peterson, the potential No. 1 pick in the NBA draft. He had 12 at the break.
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Things really unraveled for Kansas in the second half, though.
Houston forced Bill Self’s team into missing its first 16 shots while going on a 22-2 run of its own spanning halftime. Even the bucket that mercifully ended the drought, a dunk by Bidunga with 10:42 to go, nearly rattled its way back out of the basket.
Houston led 51-31 at that point before coasting into its second consecutive championship game.
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Houston lost to the No. 1 seed Wildcats at home on Feb. 21 in their only meeting of the regular season.
Kansas will likely be a No. 4 seed when the NCAA Tournament is revealed on Sunday.
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