College Station, Texas ? A strict believer in in-your-face, man-to-man defense, Kansas University basketball coach Bill Self rarely turns to the dreaded zone.

“We practice it maybe five minutes a day – not much,” Self said Wednesday after his Jayhawks’ 3-2 defense riddled Texas A&M down the stretch in an 83-73 victory over the Aggies at Reed Arena.

The Jayhawks were led by a career-high 24 points from Russell Robinson, as well as 22 from Brandon Rush and 15 from Mario Chalmers. Those three players cashed 23 of 26 free throws on a night KU hit 33 of 44.

But Self was forced to turn to the zone because of foul trouble with 11:48 left and KU leading, 49-43.

Seven minutes later, the Jayhawks held a 69-55 advantage.

“We went to the zone because they were in the bonus so early,” Self said.

A&M hit the bonus jackpot with 12:42 still to play.

“We knew they’d just spread it and throw it to (center) Joseph Jones. We thought he’d get a ton if we played man. He scored 15. If we played man, he’d have had 25 easy,” Self said.

The Aggies’ offense had little flow against the zone, which featured freshman guard Rush up top, in the middle.

“Nah, not really,” Rush said, asked if he liked the change of pace of a zone. “I’m the main one rolling back and forth. I’d rather be down low with the big guys. All they’ve got to do is run out and come back. They don’t run around as much.”

The Jayhawks have no bad habits in the zone, considering they use it so infrequently.

“We hardly ever practice it much. When we do, we practice it hard,” said freshman guard Chalmers, who hit all eight free throws – at one point hitting four charities and a bucket on consecutive possessions to make a 56-50 lead grow to 12 points.

“The zone was big for us tonight. It took them out of their offense and made them take poor shots.”

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There were other reasons KU silenced a throng of 12,110 fans, who waved white towels on most every KU possession and wore white T-shirts.

Take, for instance, a 16-0 run to open the second half that turned a 33-31 halftime deficit into a 47-33 advantage. Robinson scored eight and Rush four in that surge.

“We played great at the start of the second half,” Self said. “We were fortunate they missed some shots. We defended them better, and Mario and Russell were great to start the half. They keyed it.”

Rush had a spectacular dunk in the run, accepting a feed from Robinson, then staring down the Aggies’ Chris Walker.

“He laid it up to me, and I just dunked it,” Rush said with a shrug. “The big thing tonight is we got better shots and are shooting better. Now everything is falling.”

The Jayhawks, who improved to 12-6 overall and 3-2 in the league compared to A&M’s 12-5, 2-4 mark, hit 54.8 percent of their floor shots and 75 percent of their charities.

“We didn’t make ’em all. Darnell’s best on the team, and he missed three in a row,” Rush said of Jackson, who had 12 points off 6-of-10 free-throw shooting, to go with nine boards. “We’ve been in the same situation before and let it (game) slip away. We made it interesting but knocked down a majority of ’em tonight.”

After being down by 12 points with 2:21 to play, A&M trailed, 77-71, with :50.8 left, probably making fans squirm back home watching the game on TV, thinking another Missouri meltdown might be in the works.

But Robinson went 4-for-4 from the line and Chalmers 2-for-2 in the final minute. KU made 10 of its final 14 free throws.

KU’s 33 made charities were most since a game against Texas in 1997. KU had 47 attempts that night.

“I’m taking my time more. Coach has told me to do that at practice, and it’s working,” Chalmers said of the free throwing. “They are an important part of the game, and we were big tonight.”

The Jayhawks will travel to Iowa State on Saturday for an 11 a.m. tipoff.