Christian Braun comes up big late in Kansas Jayhawks’ 67-64 road win over Oklahoma

Kansas guard Christian Braun exited the Lloyd Noble Center visitors locker room carrying his postgame meal and started walking toward the team bus Tuesday night when his coach, Bill Self, intercepted him with a big smile on his face.

“You shot that seven seconds too early,” Self told the 6-foot-7 junior out of Blue Valley Northwest, who accepted a pass from Ochai Agbaji and swished a three-pointer from the corner, breaking a 62-62 with 10.9 seconds left as the No. 7-ranked Jayhawks beat Oklahoma 67-64.

“I knew it was good, though,” Braun countered in the lighthearted exchange.

Braun also sank two free throws with 4 seconds left, answering a pair by OU’s Jordan Goldwire and making it a 65-64 game with 6.1 seconds left.

Up three thanks in large part to Braun, KU survived a desperation heave by Elijah Harkless that had no chance of falling and forcing overtime. The Jayhawks, who withstood a 20-2 Oklahoma run in the second half, improved to 15-2 (4-1 Big 12). OU fell to 12-6 (2-4).

Though Braun’s shot may have come a couple seconds early, it nonetheless was huge, Self said.

“Well, it won that game, so I think it’s pretty big,” Self said. “I mean a tie game and shoot it five seconds too early, it’s got to go in and it was against the 1-3-1 (zone). He jumped up and made it. It’s good to see C.B. shoot the ball well and make a couple threes. He hadn’t shot very many. Of course the free throws were big as well,” Self added.

Braun, who finished with 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting (3-of-5 from three; 2-of-2 from the free-throw line), credited Agbaji for the pass that led to his clutch three. Agbaji also fed Dajuan Harris for the shot that defeated Iowa State in the final seconds last Tuesday at Allen Fieldhouse.

Braun on Tuesday also had four rebounds and four fouls.

One foul was deliberate. KU, which usually plays defense and does not foul when nursing a three-point lead late, decided to foul following Braun’s late three. The Jayhawks in fact, told the refs the plan was to foul and send OU to the line for a one-and-one instead of play out the possession. Goldwire did hit both free throws and made it a one-point game with 6.1 seconds left.

“I’ve never thought that was a percentage play,” Self said of fouling instead of trying to guard the late three. “I’ve always thought, ‘Defend it.’ I thought in this situation, ‘Gosh dang, we got a timeout to talk about it; everybody is set.’ I said there’s no reason why we can’t do that (foul). And then of course it’s a circus just to get the ball in bounds. But we did some good things and certainly played well the last three minutes.”

Agbaji had trouble inbounding to Braun with 4.9 seconds left and KU up one. Braun finally accepted a pass, was fouled and hit the two free throws with 4.0 left to account for the three-point margin of victory.

KU did not elect to foul on OU’s final possession because Tanner Groves (eight points, 4-of-13 shooting) tossed an inbounds pass back to Harkless who had to put up a desperation heave before halfcourt.

“We were going to foul (up three) in the last four seconds. They threw the ball (short). I yelled, ‘No foul,’’’ Self said.

“We were going to foul on the first one, not the second,” noted Jalen Wilson, who scored 16 points with eight rebounds.

The Jayhawks won on a night Agbaji suffered a sprained wrist after running into the scorers’ table with 12 minutes, 21 seconds left in the first half and KU up 13-9. He returned to the court with his left wrist taped at 4:18 with KU down 28-24. KU managed to hold a 34-32 at halftime.

Agbaji finally scored his first points of the game with 5:26 left, tying the score at 52-52. He hit huge threes at 3:31 and 2:48 and a driving layup with 57 seconds left that gave KU a 62-60 lead.

He finished with 10 points in the final 5:26. X-rays were negative on his left wrist, to the relief of Self.

“I didn’t know he went to the locker room,” Self said. “I said, ‘Where’s Och?’ A manager came back and told us, ‘X-rays were negative. He’ll be back out here at some point.’ That’s a big break for us. If he broke his wrist I don’t know what we’d do in that situation,” Self added.

Summing up the game, Self credited Agbaji and Braun for stellar play late.

“He (Agbaji) is a winner. He’s been our best player all year long. C.B. has been our second best,” Self said. “C.B. was probably better than Ochai tonight. He (Braun) probably didn’t have his best game, either. For those guys to step up and make those plays in the last few minutes speaks volumes about their talent but more importantly, toughness and character.”

KU will meet Kansas State at 3 p.m. Saturday in Manhattan.