No. 8 Kansas Pulls Away from Red Raiders for 73-51 Win

Despite only leading by five points at half time, the Kansas Jayhawks continued their hot perimeter shooting to pull away from Texas Tech 73-51 Tuesday in Big 12 basketball action.

Kansas coach Bill Self told his team at the half they could have just as easily been down five points rather than up by that margin.

His locker room message: sharpen it up, Jayhawks. They did.

''When Tech labors, they go through scoring droughts,'' he said. ''Our whole deal was just to try not to let them have easy baskets and make them earn them and for the most part we did a decent job with that.''

No. 8-ranked Kansas (20-4, 9-2) shot well from 3-point range, hitting 11 of 20.

Wayne Selden Jr. scored 16 points to lead the Jayhawks. Perry Ellis scored 14 points, and Frank Mason III, Brannen Greene and Cliff Alexander each added 10 to contribute to the win.

Kansas reached the 20-win mark for the 26th straight season.

The Jayhawks, who lead the conference in 3-point shooting at 41 percent, shot 55 percent for the game. Texas Tech coach Tubby Smith said he warned his players about Kansas' success from beyond the arc.

''When you don't do what you're supposed to do and make mistakes people are going to burn you for them and Kansas is the best in the league in doing that,'' he said. ''We were out there but we weren't helping at all defensively. We were helping them make shots because we weren't guarding anybody and that's usually the case for us in the second half.''

Norense Odiase scored 13 points and Devaugntah Williams added 11 for the Red Raiders (12-13, 2-10).

Texas Tech outscored the Jayhawks in the paint, 28-24, despite being a shorter team overall.

Texas Tech travels to Austin to take on then University of Texas 7 p.m. Saturday night at the Frank Erwin Special Events Center.