Kansas forward Flory Bidunga (40) lays out on the floor for a ball against TCU guard Tanner Toolson (55) during the first half, Thursday, March 12, 2026, at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City. Photo by Nick Krug

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It was never pretty for No. 3 seed Kansas in a poor shooting game for nearly every Jayhawk, nor was it a sparkling display of defensive discipline for sixth-seeded TCU as the Horned Frogs committed 17 fouls in the second half.

But KU came out on top at the conclusion of Thursday night’s gritty Big 12 tournament battle by a score of 78-73.

“All in all, I’ve had a lot of losses in which we probably visually look better,” head coach Bill Self said. “And I’d certainly prefer the result tonight than those games.”

Darryn Peterson made just 5 of 17 attempts from the field, but hit the Jayhawks’ biggest shot of the game, an off-balance jumper in the final minute — “That’s Batman. He saved the day with that. He iced the game with that midrange,” teammate Melvin Council Jr. said — and went 13-for-16 at the free-throw line to get to 24 points on the night.

“He’s got his legs back underneath him at the perfect time of the year,” guard Elmarko Jackson said.

Flory Bidunga weathered early foul trouble to compile a 13-point, 10-rebound double-double and, perhaps most impressively, a plus-minus of 31 in the tightly contested game.

“The thing we did best, obviously, was get fouled and shoot free throws,” Self said, as KU went 30-for-37 from the line. “So that was great to see. We have to be better tomorrow night. But it was kind of one of those games, survive and advance games. It’s good it ended up the way it did.”

TCU’s David Punch racked up 24 points and 10 rebounds, doing some of his best work when Bidunga was off the floor.

The Jayhawks prevented TCU from getting any open looks in the early stages and successfully thwarted a series of double teams by the Horned Frogs. The result was that KU led 7-0 with five early points from Council as TCU was still searching for its first points at the under-16 media timeout.

Bryson Tiller hit a turnaround jumper in the post before Xavier Edmonds gave TCU its first points on a left-wing 3-pointer with 14:29 left in the half.

The Horned Frogs proceeded to erase their entire deficit amid a series of misses by Tre White and take the lead at 12-11 on a 3 by Liutauras Lelevicius.

Shortly afterward, Bidunga got called for his second foul. Edmonds took advantage of his absence to back down White for a layup that made it 17-13, and then the Jayhawks left Jayden Pierre wide open for a 3-pointer in the corner.

Lelevicius, whose career high of 23 points came against KU earlier in the year, had 11 of TCU’s first 23 as the Frogs maintained a seven-point advantage.

Bidunga returned to the court and battled for a couple buckets inside to help revive the KU-friendly crowd, and Peterson added a floater after a slow start. After Punch settled for and missed a deep jumper, Council pushed the pace to set up Tre White for a three-point play.

Peterson knocked down a step-back 3 the next time down to extend KU’s run to 12 in a row and force a timeout by TCU.

Punch spun around Tiller for a layup to cut KU’s lead to 28-25, and then powered through White for another.

The Jayhawks and Horned Frogs were tied at 31 when Pierre drained a left-wing 3 and Bryson Tiller missed one at the other end, giving TCU a narrow advantage at the break.

KU was so streaky in the first half as to embark on a 9-0 run in 4:52 and 12-0 run in 2:09 and only score 10 total points in the remaining 12:59. A lot of their success had to do with Bidunga, who was plus-15 in the half and whose replacements struggled to withstand Punch and Edmonds in the eight minutes he spent off the floor.

TCU missed its first six shots of the second half and KU responded with another strong opening salvo of eight early points — only for Bidunga to commit his third foul on what became a three-point play by Punch. He exited after a 1-for-2 trip to the free-throw line that made it 40-37 in the Jayhawks’ favor.

With Bidunga on the bench, TCU tied the game on another three-point play, this time by Lelevicius.

Self called timeout with 14 minutes left after Micah Robinson knocked down a transition 3-pointer that doubled TCU’s lead from three to six.

Once again, Bidunga returned from his absence and immediately scored twice. KU got into the bonus with 11:48 to go on a foul by Tanner Toolson and went back ahead on free throws by Jackson.

Midway through the half, Edmonds committed his fourth foul, forcing TCU to revert to using just one post player against KU when the Jayhawks had been quite susceptible to the combination of Edmonds and Punch. Robinson got called for his fourth less than a minute later in what rapidly turned into a battle of free throws.

Pierre got a friendly roll on a pull-up 3 that tied the game at 55, kicking off a 7-0 run for the Frogs.

The Jayhawks worked their way back into contention with another series of free throws before White knocked down a shot from the corner to make it 64-61 in KU’s favor.

KU had a chance to go up seven after Peterson slapped the ball away from Punch, but he missed a two-handed dunk attempt in transition. Tiller accounted for the miss with a dunk of his own after the under-four timeout.

The Frogs committed a series of late turnovers that allowed the Jayhawks to drain a great deal of clock in the final minutes. Most notable was a travel by Pierre with 1:15 to go and the Jayhawks ahead 70-65, which eventually set up Peterson’s late jumper.

“The best players have got to be aggressive all the time,” Self said. “And he’s the best player. So the same with Flo. We’ll be a lot better when these two are aggressive all the time, and they know that.”

TCU created some late tension with a 3-pointer by Robinson that made it a four-point game with seven seconds left. After two free throws by Jackson, Punch drilled another 3, but Jackson went to the line again and sealed the game.

“I give us a C-minus today, and we came out on top,” Council said.

KU will face No. 2 seed Houston at 8:30 p.m. on Friday. The Cougars beat BYU 73-66 in their quarterfinal matchup.

“We had some success against them when we played them,” Self said. “Now granted, it was the third game in a hard week for them. But we need to play with much more toughness tomorrow than tonight.”

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