Kansas guard Johnny Furphy (10) hangs his hand in the air after hitting a three against Oklahoma guard Rivaldo Soares (5) during the second half on Saturday, Jan. 13, 2024 at Allen Fieldhouse. Photo by Nick Krug

Kansas had a tough time closing out its first two conference games against TCU and UCF; one resulted in a last-second win, one in a crushing loss on the road.

Back home Saturday, Kansas found a second-half run it hadn’t been able to string together in either of its first two games of conference play.

In fact, it found two.

The Jayhawks used 11-2 and 9-0 stretches in the later stages of Saturday’s game to dispatch No. 9 Oklahoma, 78-66.

“Probably the best game we’ve played, you know, in a long time, maybe since Connecticut (on Dec. 1),” KU coach Bill Self said.

OU, which has not won in Allen Fieldhouse since 1993 and will depart after the season for the Southeastern Conference, took its first lead with 6:28 left in the first half and trailed by just one at halftime, but shot just 10-for-31 after the break and allowed Kevin McCullar Jr. to run rampant.

McCullar, who hit the first shot of the game and then did not score for nearly 18 minutes, got to the hoop and drew contact again and again, then finished as the game’s second-leading scorer with 21 points.

KJ Adams used a torrid start to rack up 15 points and seven rebounds by halftime, before passing the baton to center Hunter Dickinson, who led all players with 24 points and 14 boards and added a season-high five blocks.

“We just wanted to come out there with a lot of energy,” Dickinson said, “and we knew if we played Kansas basketball, there’s no team in the country that can beat us, and I think we did that today.”

Adams went scoreless in the second half, but finished with double-digit rebounds for the third time in four games, securing his second career double-double.

“He was just doing a little bit of everything and that’s kind of what he’s known for and what he does for us,” Dickinson said.

OU guards Javian McCollum, Otega Oweh and Milos Uzan all scored in double digits as well but regressed from shooting 10-for-19 in the first half from 6-for-18 in the second.

“We didn’t guard well enough in the second half,” OU coach Porter Moser said. “It put a lot of pressure on our offense, when you don’t guard that way. They do that to you.”

Moser noted that KU only committed two turnovers all day; as it turned out, that was a program record.

“That’s kind of unheard of in basketball,” Adams said.

It was a dramatic improvement over the back-to-back 18-turnover efforts against TCU and UCF.

KU used a combination of precise ball movement and tight defense on the interior to take an early advantage. The Jayhawks built some distance when Adams drained a rare jump shot, then a Dajuan Harris Jr. steal and Adams outlet pass set up Johnny Furphy for a transition layup to put them ahead 12-4.

Furphy, making his second overall start and first since the Maui Invitational, earned praise postgame from Self for his play; the coach also noted he would have played more if not for early fouls and then getting tired in the second half.

“He had a good night tonight, especially with confidence,” Adams said.

Adams, looking confident himself, bolstered his fast start with a floater and a three-point play on a second-chance basket inside, bringing his scoring total to nine points in the first eight minutes.

OU drew the deficit back to 19-17 after McCullar got called for a shooting foul on a wild 3-point attempt by McCollum with half a second left in the shot clock, then took the lead on a fierce putback dunk by Jalon Moore that made it 27-26 with 6:13 to go in the half.

KU went more than four minutes without a field goal before Dickinson muscled his way deep into the paint for a hook shot. Adams then put back a missed layup by Harris to put the Jayhawks back on top by a point.

After a frenzied sequence of pre-halftime possessions, KU went into the break with that same margin, leading 38-37.

OU was forced to call a quick timeout early in the second half after back-to-back transition dunks by Furphy and Dickinson brought the Allen Fieldhouse crowd to life.

“Plays like that really energize, especially when you have a crowd like this in Allen,” Dickinson said. “It’s more than just two points out there for us.”

The Jayhawks struggled to build any more distance until McCullar hit a corner 3, Dickinson blocked a shot off an OU player, McCullar hit a free throw on the next possession and Furphy drained a transition 3 to make it 55-46.

With Parker Braun in the game, a pair of 3s by the Sooners’ reserve center Luke Northweather, who had previously not scored since Nov. 23, cut short the Jayhawks’ run.

McCullar continued to drive harder and harder into the paint, and OU lost its rhythm during a lengthy scoring drought. KU extended its lead to double digits and then beyond on five straight points by McCullar, a banked hook shot by Dickinson and a Harris floater. The Jayhawks went up 74-58 with five minutes to go and the Sooners did not score until Oweh hit a lone free throw with 3:55 left.

Now 14-2 (2-1 in Big 12 Conference play), the Jayhawks will play the first of back-to-back road games when they travel to Oklahoma State to take on the Cowboys Tuesday at 8 p.m.

This story has been updated to reflect that OU has not won in Allen Fieldhouse in 31 years; it has not lost 31 straight times.

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