Arizona went into the heart of Big 12 territory, Kansas City, Mo., and ripped it away from Kansas and its fans at the conference tournament Thursday.
T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas is about 1,300 miles away from the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, but the Wildcats played the same as they did so many times at McKale North.
“They came ready to play,” Kansas coach Bill Self said of Arizona, which played itself into a double-bye with the No. 3 seed while the Jayhawks were pushed to the limit in an overtime win Wednesday night over UCF.
Reserves K.J. Lewis and Henri Veesaar each had 19 points to lead the Wildcats to an 88-77 victory over No. 6 Kansas less than a week after the Jayhawks beat Arizona in Lawrence, Kan., on Senior Night.
Veesaar did not start and Trey Townsend took his place. Veesaar proved to be a spark along with Lewis and Townsend (16 points) was effective.
“This has been a resilient group. We’ve had some tough days, but we’re here for it,” Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said.
Arizona (21-11) will play No. 2 Texas Tech (25-7) at 6:30 p.m. in the Big 12 semifinal round. No. 1 Houston (28-4) will play No. 4 BYU (23-8) in the first semifinal at 4 p.m.
The Wildcats split the regular-season series against the Red Raiders with each team winning at home.
“They’re one of the most disciplined teams in the country,” Lloyd said of Texas Tech. “They know what they want to do and they’re able to execute it with a lot of certainty. When they make a plan they have a conviction to stick with it and it’s really impressive.
“Obviously, they’re playing with great confidence. They’re shooting the ball well. It’s just a great team and they’re having a great season.”
These two pic.twitter.com/yEIIfZO0c3
— Arizona Basketball (@ArizonaMBB) March 14, 2025
Kansas made eight of 10 shots from the field in one stretch of the second half but Arizona made four of five at the tail end of the Jayhawks’ hot shooting.
Six unanswered points by Arizona gave the Wildcats a 76-69 lead with 4:01 left.
Veesaar converted a 3-point play and Lewis made a layup in transition in that run.
Arizona proceeded to outscore Kansas 12-3 to run the lead to 88-75 with 17 seconds left.
The Wildcats made nine of their last 11 field goal attempts.
Arizona outscored Kansas 46-20 in the paint largely because of the play of Veesaar and Arizona’s penetration into the lane.
“I just didn’t feel like we had the energy defensively to keep ’em out of the paint,” Self said. “Obviously, they shot the ball well, but where they really hurt us the most was at the rim and they dominated the paint.”
WORK HENRI
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— Arizona Basketball (@ArizonaMBB) March 14, 2025
Lewis had six points, including two free throws, and Veesar also made two free throws down the stretch.
When asked during the postgame press conference why the switch was made to have Veesaar come off the bench, Lloyd said, “Listen, I’m not Nostra-Thomas. Isn’t that what you called me before? I’m just a coach. I just felt like maybe it would be the right move today. Trey has been trending in the right direction and Trey is a first-class guy.”
Townsend continued his string of strong games scoring his 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field. He has 37 points in his last three games (one against Arizona State and two against Kansas) while shooting 13 of 19 from the field, 4 of 6 from 3-point range.
“I mean, last year he’s the mid-major national player of the year,” Lloyd said of Townsend, formerly of Oakland who made headlines when his team upset Kentucky in the NCAA tournament last year. “He comes to Arizona, has some success, but then has some struggle. I moved the lineup around and he was nothing but classy the whole time. I felt like he was trending in the right direction and I felt it was the right move.”
Kansas missed six of seven attempts after its 8-of-10 stretch, including three consecutive misses from 3-point range by Zeke Mayo.
When Kansas outscored Arizona 22-9 in an early stretch of the second half to take a 59-56 lead, Mayo made four 3-pointers.
He failed to make another shot from beyond the arch in the last 11:37.
Mayo finished with a game-high 20 points and Hunter Dickinson had 19 points and 12 rebounds.
Dickinson was 8 of 18 from the field after matching a career-high 33 points on 15-of-23 shooting from the field in Kansas’ win Saturday over Arizona.
“I thought maybe Saturday we played more desperate,” Self said. “Last home game, Senior Day. I thought tonight we tried hard but I didn’t feel like we played quite as desperate or with as much reckless abandon as we did Saturday.”
Dickinson said more than once the loss rests on his shoulders.
“I don’t think you can blame fatigue (from playing the night before),” he said. “In this NIL era, we are paid to play, so you’ve got to be professionals and approach it like professionals. You can’t give that excuse.
“I think it starts with me. I’ve got to be better for my team and give them more energy. I feel like I let them down defensively.”
Caleb Love played efficiently with 11 points and six assists. He took only nine shots from the field and was 1 of 4 from 3-point range.
It was only the second game all season that Love had less than 10 field-goal attempts (he also tried nine against Old Dominion in the second game of the season on Nov. 9).
Arizona set the tone early with a 10-0 run to take a 19-9 lead with with 14:05 left in the first half.
Anthony Dell’Orso and Carter Bryant each made a 3-pointer in that stretch.
All of the eight players who played scored at least four points and six different players made a 3-pointer for the Wildcats.
“They had balance and we obviously didn’t have as much balance,” Self said. “We didn’t play the bench much. I didn’t think our bench was very effective, to be honest.
“I thought their bench was obviously pretty effective, and there was no drop-off when they went to it.”
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon. He became an educator in 2016 and is presently a special education teacher at Sunnyside High School in the Sunnyside Unified School District.
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