Kansas guard Dajuan Harris Jr. (3) works to get around TCU guard Mike Miles Jr. (1) in the second half of an NCAA college basketball game, Monday, Feb. 20, 2023, in Fort Worth, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Fort Worth, Texas — On a night when it seemed like No. 3 Kansas needed to string just a few stops together to open up a relatively comfortable lead against No. 24 TCU, the Jayhawks finally got a few in the final minutes of a 63-58 win, a grinder at Schollmaier Arena on Monday night.

The biggest stop came on a tie-up of TCU forward Damion Baugh by KU senior Kevin McCullar Jr.

The play came with around 30 seconds to play and Kansas leading by three. The possession arrow favored the Jayhawks at the time and, after running off about seven seconds, KU’s Jalen Wilson went to the free throw line to try to put KU up by two possessions.

Wilson, who shot just 3-of-11 on the night, missed the first charity shot, allowing TCU one last chance to tie. But Baugh’s deep 3-point try over Gradey Dick missed the rim and McCullar grabbed the rebound with 1.5 seconds to play. He was promptly fouled and, this time, KU got the free throws they needed to ice the game.

“In the Big 12 you’ve got to get stops to win,” McCullar said after the win. “And we did that tonight.”

Kansas (23-5 overall, 11-4 Big 12) won despite not scoring a basket for the final 4:45 of game time.

A couple of minutes before the clincher, on back-to-back possessions with less than six minutes to play, the Jayhawks got a couple more stops that helped them build their cushion.

The first came when Wilson rebounded a TCU miss with his shoulder caught in the wing of a TCU player. And the second came when the Jayhawks forced an errant pass by the Frogs to reclaim possession.

Dajuan Harris scored on a drive to the rim after one of the stops and Wilson recorded a tough offensive rebound (13 rebounds total on Monday) and put-back after the other to put the Jayhawks up 60-53 with 4:41 to play.

A lot of that came immediately after TCU quarterback and Heisman Trophy finalist Max Duggan made a late entrance in a tuxedo after accepting the Davey O’Brien award on campus earlier in the night.

Duggan and his date were greeted by a wild ovation from the TCU fans as he took his seat at mid-court. Unlike Duggan’s success on the gridiron, his presence on the floor on Monday did not lead the Horned Frogs (18-10, 7-8) to victory.

KU won its fifth Big 12 game in a row after losing a stretch of four of five games leading up to that. Three of those have come on the road, where Kansas is now 5-3 in conference play heading into the final three games of the regular season.

While nothing much came easy for either team in this one, the Jayhawks got off to a good start to control things from the start, no matter how little control they actually had.

Monday’s first half, though not perfect, featured a bunch of things for Kansas to like.

The Jayhawks started fast, jumping out to a 7-0 lead before TCU cracked the scoreboard. The KU defense forced TCU to miss its first eight field goal attempts and held the Horned Frogs to 32% shooting for the half overall.

Kansas out-rebounded the Frogs 24-20 and held strong in the paint even when TCU was able to get the ball in tight, forcing a couple of misses, a few trips to the free throw line instead of easy buckets and even recording two blocks, including one by freshman big man Ernest Udeh Jr. at the rim.

The other block came from McCullar, (15 points, seven rebounds) who hustled back into the play after gambling on a steal to block a TCU 3-point attempt on the wing.

Kansas also limited its turnovers to six in the first half, but did give up eight points off of those turnovers, with a handful of live-ball giveaways leading to easy buckets for the Frogs the way they did in TCU’s blowout win in Lawrence earlier this season.

There were other issues with the first 20 minutes, though, too. Wilson and Dick both picked up two fouls in the first 20 minutes and the Jayhawks made just two of 10 3-point attempts while getting to the free throw line just once.

All of that, punctuated by an Udeh dunk on a broken play to beat the halftime buzzer, combined to put Kansas in front 33-29 at halftime. That marked a net-14 point improvement from the first meeting, when KU trailed by 10 at the break.

Thanks in large part to their ability to limit turnovers and keep the pace more to their liking, the Jayhawks held TCU to 19 points fewer than the 48 they scored in Lawrence while scoring just five fewer themselves.

It’s often the little things that can determine the outcome on the road. And the Jayhawks did enough of those little things in the first half to take control of the game for long enough.

The win moves KU into sole possession of first place in the Big 12 Conference at least for the time being. KU is now a half-game ahead of Texas in the league standings and a game and a half in front of Baylor.

“We control our own destiny,” Wilson said after the win, noting that he was proud of the team’s fight and how everyone on the roster impacted the outcome.

Baylor plays at Kansas State on Tuesday night and Texas plays host to Iowa State.

Next up for the Jayhawks is a home matchup with West Virginia at 3 p.m. Saturday.