NORMAN, Okla. Kansas quest for a 15th straight Big 12 regular-season basketball championship ended on the road Tuesday night.
The Jayhawks, (22-8, 11-6), who entered Tuesday nights game at Oklahomas Lloyd Noble Center needing to sweep Oklahoma and Baylor this week to remain in contention for at least a share of the league crown, instead were drilled by the Sooners, 81-68.
Kristian Doolittle scored 24 points, Brady Manek 21 and Rashard Odomes 12 as OU (19-11, 7-10) won for the fourth time in five games and left No. 13 Kansas two games behind Kansas State (23-7, 13-4) and Texas Tech (25-5, 13-4) in the league race with just one game left to play.
Dedric Lawson scored 18 points with 11 rebounds and David McCormack had a career-high 18 points and five boards for the cold-shooting, turnover-prone Jayhawks, who fell to 3-6 in Big 12 road games and 3-8 overall on the road this season. KUs 3-6 road mark is the teams worst in league play in the Bill Self era. KU went 4-5 on the road in 2014-15. KU last lost six conference games in 1988-89.
The Jayhawks, whose 14 consecutive Big 12 titles rank as the most consecutive league crowns of any team (UCLA won 13 titles from 1967-79), had remained in contention for a possible 15th straight crown thanks to a perfect home record.
KU, which hit only 7 of 31 3s and 40.9 percent of its shots overall to OUs 9 of 23 3s and overall 49.1 percent mark Tuesday, will take a 16-0 home mark (8-0 in league) into Saturdays regular-season finale against Baylor, set for a 1 p.m. tipoff at Allen Fieldhouse. Baylor (19-10, 10-6) will play host to Oklahoma State on Wednesday night.
Manek scored 15 points and Doolittle eight as OU raced to a 41-28 halftime advantage. The Sooners led by as many as 19 points in the half.
Lawson had eight points and six rebounds and David McCormack seven points in the initial half for KU, which finished with 15 turnovers to OUs nine.
KU trailed 9-7 three minutes into the game. Thats when the Sooners broke free on a 14-0 run to make it 23-7 at 12:21. Manek hit two 3s and had 10 of the Sooners first 23 points. He hit four of his first five shots. Also, Christian James hit two 3s and scored six early points.
The Jayhawks suffered six turnovers in that same span.
OU led 26-9 at 10:51.
KU went on a 9-0 run to slice the gap to a manageable 26-18 at 8:04. McCormack had four points in the run. However, OU rattled off 10 straight points and led, 36-18, at 6:11. The Sooners led by a half-high 19 points, 39-20, at 4:35 following a 3 by Matt Freeman. At that point, OU had hit seven 3s in 11 tries.
Down 41-22 at 2:21, KU closed the half on a positive note, outscoring the Sooners 6-0. Marcus Garrett scored four points and Lawson two. KU had a chance to score before halftime, but committed a turnover on the final possession. KU had nine turnovers the first half to OUs six. OU hit 7 of 13 3s to KUs 2 of 14.
KU trailed 45-32 with 18:51 left in the contest. However, OU was never threatened, immediately upping the lead to 48-32 and 56-35. OU led by 23 points, 62-39, at 13:00.
With 1 minute, 26 seconds left, the OU student section chanted streak is over.
